If your business produces any waste at all — and every business does, even a laptop-and-desk consultancy — you have a legal duty of care for it under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The duty applies to anyone who produces, keeps or transports business waste, it can't be contracted away, and breaches are enforced with on-the-spot penalties and, for serious cases, unlimited fines.
The rules are less painful than they sound: store waste safely, give it to the right people, keep the paperwork. This guide covers each step, the documents involved, and what it costs to skip them.
Who the duty of care applies to
Section 34 covers every link in the chain: the business that produces the waste, anyone who stores or keeps it, anyone who carries it, and anyone who treats or disposes of it. If business waste passes through your hands, the duty of care sits on you for your part of its journey.
It applies regardless of size or sector. A cafe's food waste, a salon's chemical bottles, an office's broken chairs, a builder's offcuts — all of it is business waste, and none of it can be handled like household rubbish.
Your three core obligations
- Store waste safely and securely — containers that prevent leaks, escapes and scavenging, with hazardous waste kept separate from the rest.
- Transfer waste only to an authorised person — a registered waste carrier or a site licensed to accept it. 'They seemed legitimate' is not a defence; checking the register is.
- Complete a waste transfer note (WTN) for every transfer — and keep it for at least 2 years.
Waste transfer notes explained
A WTN is a short document recording what the waste is, how much there is and how it's contained, where it came from, and who it passed between — including the carrier's registration number. Your waste contractor will normally supply the form, and both parties sign it.
Keep WTNs for at least 2 years, and be ready to produce them if the council or the Environment Agency asks. Hazardous waste uses consignment notes instead, and those must be kept for 3 years.
If the same carrier makes regular, identical collections — a weekly trade waste round, say — you don't need a fresh note for every visit: an annual 'season ticket' WTN can cover the repeating series of transfers for up to a year.
Checking your waste contractor
Before any firm takes your waste, check it's a registered carrier on the Environment Agency's public register — free, instant, no account needed. Ask for the registration number (CBDU followed by digits in England) and confirm the name matches the firm you're dealing with. Our guide on checking a waste carrier's registration covers the details, including the red flags.
Every carrier listed on Recyclr is cross-checked against the EA register. If you need scheduled collections, compare regular collection providers near you.
Common mistakes that earn penalties
- Taking trade waste to the household tip — household waste recycling centres are for householders; many councils refuse trade waste outright or only accept it under a separate paid scheme.
- Skipping WTNs for ad-hoc collections — a one-off clearance needs paperwork just as much as a weekly round does.
- Assuming the carrier's registration is the carrier's problem — if your waste is fly-tipped, the duty-of-care trail leads back to you.
- Mixing hazardous waste into general waste — hazardous waste has its own consignment regime and stricter storage rules.
- Putting business waste in a household bin at home — it remains business waste wherever it ends up.
Penalties for getting it wrong
Councils and the Environment Agency can issue fixed penalty notices for duty-of-care breaches. For a business that can't produce waste transfer notes, the fixed penalty is typically around £300, set by the individual council. Prosecution is the backstop: on conviction, serious duty-of-care breaches carry unlimited fines.
And if your waste ends up fly-tipped, the consequences escalate sharply for everyone in the chain — see our fly-tipping fines guide. Set against that, compliance is cheap: a registered carrier (here's who needs a licence and why), a signed note for each transfer, and a folder to keep them in.