Business waste - your duty of care

Businesses have a legal requirement to properly store, manage and dispose of any waste they may produce.

Every year the council has to investigate many fly-tipping and litter problems - many caused by business waste which has not been disposed of properly.

As a business, you need to take all reasonable steps to keep waste safe. This is your Duty of Care and the law applies to anyone who produces, imports, transports, stores, treats or disposes of waste from business or industry.

If you break this law, you can be prosecuted in the Courts and be heavily fined.

You must check that anyone that you pass your waste on to is authorised to take it. Otherwise, you could be held responsible.

What does the law say?

Section 34 of the Environment Protection Act 1990 means you are under a legal Duty of Care to make sure that your waste is passed onto an authorised person and is disposed of legitimately. You must retain a Waste Transfer Note that sets out certain details of your waste.

Repeated transfers of the same kind of waste between the same parties can be covered by one transfer note for up to a year. However any unusual or unexpected additions to the waste must be notified to the waste remover so they can dispose of it in an appropriate way.

You must keep waste transfer notes for two years. The council can serve a notice on you requiring their production. Therefore if you cannot produce the correct documentation you could receive a Fixed Penalty Notice of £300, or even face prosecution and a much larger fine. The council will make such checks from time to time.

What do businesses need to do to ensure they comply with the law?

  • Package or contain all waste materials appropriately to stop them escaping from your, or anyone else's, control
  • Write a description of the type of waste being disposing of on the waste containers so that anyone receiving it may then dispose of it safely and appropriately
  • Make sure that your waste is collected by a properly authorised waste management company, or have other suitable arrangements in place. Anyone collecting your waste should either have a waste carriers licence from the Environment Agency, or have a formal exemption. This can be checked online via the Public Register on the Environment Agency's website This link will take you to an external website... . Only send your waste to a person or business authorised to deal with that type of waste.
  • If you transport waste from your own business activities, e.g. to a disposal site, you may also need to have a waste carriers licence. You can check this with the Environment Agency. Again you should obtain and keep waste transfer notes.
  • Keep records of all waste that you transfer or receive for at least two years.

Further advice is available from:

Last reviewed: 31 - 05 - 2011

Was this page helpful?YesNo