Your waste responsibilities
Your business will produce waste and you have a responsibility to ensure that you produce, store, transport and dispose of it without harming the environment. This is called your duty of care.
What you must do
Comply with your duty of care
The duty of care applies to controlled waste. Controlled waste includes commercial, industrial and household waste, as well as hazardous/special waste, agricultural, construction and demolition waste.
You must make sure that you only pass waste to someone who is authorised to take it. If you do not check, and the person you have passed your waste to disposes of it illegally, you could be held responsible, prosecuted and fined.
You must keep records of all transfers of your waste.
The duty of care has no time limit. You are specifically responsible for your waste from when you produce it until you have transferred it to an authorised person. However, if you think that your waste is not being managed correctly you must take action to check and prevent this.
Use an authorised waste carrier
You must only pass your waste to, or have it collected by, an authorised person.
Anyone who collects and transports your waste must:
- be a registered carrier of controlled waste, or
- be exempt from registration as a carrier - this includes your local council’s waste collection services.
Contact your local council
Anyone who recycles, treats, stores, reprocesses or disposes of your waste must have:
- an environmental permit (England and Wales)
- a waste management licence or pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit (Northern Ireland and Scotland)
- a registered exemption from permitting for your type of waste and what they do with it.
Use our waste directory to find licensed recycling and waste disposal sites in your area.
Check your carrier is registered
You must check and keep proof that anyone that you pass your waste to is authorised to take it.
A registered carrier should be able to produce a certificate of registration or a certified copy.
If your waste is collected by a waste carrier, you must check that they have a waste carriers registration or a registered exemption.
If you do not check and keep proof of this you could be held responsible if your waste is disposed of illegally, for example by fly-tipping.
You can check your environmental regulator’s register of carriers and brokers to see if a carrier is registered.
Environment Agency: Your right to know - public registers
Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA): Public register
SEPA: Who is registered?
If you are in any doubt about someone’s authority to carry your waste you must contact your environmental regulator
Contact your environmental regulator
Use waste transfer notes
You must complete a waste transfer note (WTN) for every load of waste you pass to others. This will include a detailed description of the waste.
You may be able to use a ‘season ticket’ if you have regular collections of waste of the same type by a waste carrier. This is one transfer note covering a series of transfers over a year, for example weekly collections of waste from shops or commercial premises or multiple lorry trips to remove a large heap of waste.
A WTN shows carriers and site operators who handle your waste what they are handling. WTNs also ensure that there is a clear audit trail for the waste from when it is produced until it is disposed of.
A WTN must be completed and signed by both the person sending the waste and the person collecting it.
You must keep copies of all your WTNs for at least two years and be able to produce them on demand to your environmental regulator or local council, or you could be fined.
There is no standard WTN. Many waste carriers produce their own versions. You can download and use this example WTN.
Example Waste Transfer Note (Adobe PDF - 29KB)
Pre-treat waste for landfill
You must make sure that your waste is treated before it goes to a landfill site. This applies to most types of waste. You can either treat your waste yourself or make sure that a later holder of the waste will treat it before they send it to a landfill site.
For more information see our landfill guidance.
Follow hazardous or special waste controls
Waste that is potentially harmful to humans and the environment is known as hazardous waste in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and special waste in Scotland.
Most businesses produce some hazardous or special waste. Examples include some types of batteries, fluorescent tubes, computer monitors and certain paints.
You must:
- always keep hazardous or special waste separate from other waste
- store hazardous or special waste in sealed, labelled containers
- use designated, secure, labelled, waterproof containment areas to store hazardous or special waste
- bund containment areas for hazardous or special waste by building a secondary barrier around the main containment area to hold hazardous or special waste if the containers (eg drums) leak
- use a consignment note when hazardous waste is moved and keep copies of consignment notes for three years.
See our guidance for more information what to do with your hazardous/special waste.
Some types of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are classed as hazardous/special waste.
Have a permit or licence
If you collect, treat, dismantle, reprocess, recycle or dispose of any waste materials yourself, you must have
You can take most waste produced by your own business directly to an authorised waste management site or recycling facility.
You must register with your environmental regulator as a waste carrier or broker if you:
- transport your own construction or demolition waste
- handle, transport, recycle or dispose of any waste on behalf of another business.
In Wales, the Green Compass scheme and PAS 402 have been developed to help the construction and building industry select waste management contractors that can demonstrate sound waste management. When selecting a waste management contractor you could specify that they comply with PAS 402, verified by Green Compass inspection.
