All householders have a duty of care to make sure their waste is disposed of legally.
You must make sure any waste you have collected from your home (apart from your kerbside recycling and waste collections) is legally disposed of. This includes any waste that tradespeople (including gardeners) generate as part of any work you have carried out on your property.
To do this you need to:
- check the waste collector has an up-to-date waste carriers licence (higher tier) or if they are exempt (charities)
- ask for waste transfer notes for all waste that they collect from your property
If the waste collector can’t produce either of these documents, they may be illegally disposing of your waste. If found illegally dumped, you may be prosecuted.
Remember SCRAP:
- Suspect – if it doesn’t look right it probably isn’t!
- Check – ask them for their waste carriers licence number issued by the Environment Agency
- Refuse – say no to unsolicited offers
- Ask – question where they will take your waste
- Paperwork – make sure you get a waste transfer note giving a description of waste and where it will be taken.
Commercial waste collectors should not use our household kerbside collection or recycling centres to dispose of your waste.
Any tradesperson who carries out work on your property should dispose of the waste through a commercial service. If they leave the waste for you to dispose of, you must also do them same.