Your business is legally responsible for its waste, from the date it is produced until it is recycled or disposed of, including all storage and handling stages. This is known as your ‘duty of care’. You must:

• use a registered waste business to collect, recycle, recover or dispose of your waste in England;
• register to transport your own waste in England;
• keep to the restrictions if you move waste between countries.

You could face an unlimited fine if your waste ends up fly-tipped and you cannot show that you took reasonable steps to prevent it.

However you dispose of your commercial waste, you must ensure that you complete Waste Information Notes relating to all waste that originates from your business. You must keep all Waste Information Notes for a period of two years, and you must make them available for inspection by authorised officers of the Council or the Environment Agency when required to do so.

Failure to produce Waste Information Notes when asked by the Council or the Environment Agency is an offence, for which Fixed Penalty Fines of £300 can be issued.

If you dispose of your commercial waste through your local Council trade waste collection service, or through the trade waste scheme at the HWRCs, they will ensure that the necessary Waste Information Notes are completed.

Ensuring that only registered waste carriers carry waste, and ensuring that all waste is accounted for by Waste Information Notes, helps to ensure that all waste ends up disposed of correctly, and does not end up fly-tipped.

Photograph courtesy of Keep Britain Tidy