All businesses produce waste and all waste produced by your business or within your workplace is regulated by waste laws.
You have a legal responsibility to ensure that you produce, store, transport and dispose of your business waste without harming the environment. This is called your duty of care.
If your business produces any kind of controlled waste you must comply with the duty of care. Most types of business waste are classed as controlled waste including household, commercial and industrial waste.
There are many examples of business waste including:
- waste paper
- empty printer cartridges
- packaging and defective products from factories
- scrap metal
- old window frames from building sites.
What you must do to comply with the duty of care
You must ensure that you:
- store and transport your waste appropriately and securely so it does not escape
- check that your waste is transported and handled by people or businesses that are authorised to do so
- complete waste transfer notes (WTNs) to document all waste you transfer and keep them as a record for at least two years.
If a waste carrier takes your waste away, you may also need to check that the site it is taken to is authorised to accept it.
Businesses that deal with waste
If you transport waste you should read our waste carriers, brokers and dealers guidance.
If you transport waste produced by your own business you don’t usually need to register as a waste carrier, unless you produce construction or demolition waste.
If you are involved in commercial waste management read our guidance for waste and sewage businesses.
If you send waste to landfill read our guidance on pre-treating waste for landfill.
If you want to find where to dispose of, or recycle, a particular types of waste use our Waste Directory to find licensed recycling and waste disposal sites in your area.
In this guideline:
What is the duty of care?
Who is allowed to deal with your waste?
Records for transferring waste - waste transfer notes
Storing waste
Transporting and disposing of waste
Duty of care further information
Duty of care legislation
