You must make sure hazardous waste produced or handled by your business in England causes no harm or damage.

Your have responsibilities known as your ‘ duty of care ’. You must also meet extra requirements depending on whether you’re a waste:

• producer or holder (you produce or store waste)
• carrier (you collect and transport waste)
• consignee (you receive waste, eg for recycling or disposal)

There are different requirements for exporting waste.

Check if your waste is hazardous

Waste is generally considered hazardous if it (or the material or substances it contains) are harmful to humans or the environment. Examples of hazardous waste include:

• asbestos
• chemicals, eg brake fluid or print toner
• batteries
• solvents
• pesticides
• oils (except edible ones), eg car oil
• equipment containing ozone depleting substances, eg fridges
• hazardous waste containers

You must follow these steps in England if your business:

• produces hazardous waste
• holds or stores hazardous waste
• has hazardous waste removed from its premises

1. Register your premises, unless you’ll produce or hold less than 500 kilograms of hazardous waste there in any 12-month period.
2. Classify your waste to check if it’s hazardous.
3. Separate and store hazardous waste safely.
4. Use authorised businesses to collect, recycle or dispose of your hazardous waste – check that waste carriers are registered and waste sites have environmental permits.
5. Fill in the parts of the consignment note that apply to you – keep one copy and give 2 copies to the carrier collecting your waste.
6. Keep records (known as a ‘register’) for 3 years.

• the registered premises that produced or stored the waste
• your head office if the premises is exempt from registration

• consignment notes
• consignee returns – you’ll get these from businesses that receive your waste (consignees)
• any related documents, eg ‘carrier schedules’ (list of carriers when there is more than one), records of rejected loads

• receive hazardous waste – this includes deliveries of waste from your own business
• treat or dispose of hazardous waste on your business premises – this includes your own waste

You must follow these steps if your business collects and transports hazardous waste in England, eg you’re a waste carrier or you move your own waste.

1. Register as a waste carrier.
2. Check parts A and B of the consignment note and the waste before you accept it – make sure the waste is classified correctly and you’re collecting it from business premises that are registered or exempt.
3. Separate waste correctly when you load it for transportation.
4. Fill in the part of the consignment note that applies to you.
5. Leave one copy of the consignment note with the waste producer or holder and keep 2 copies – these must stay with the waste until it reaches its destination.
6. Take the waste to the destination on the consignment note – it must be an authorised waste site.
7. Keep records (known as a ‘register’) for one year.

• consignment notes
• any related documents, eg ‘carrier schedules’ (list of carriers when there is more than one), records of rejected loads

• You must follow these steps if you receive, treat or dispose of hazardous waste at premises in England.

  1. Get an environmental permit or register an exemption for your premises.

  2. Check the consignment note and waste before you accept it – make sure it comes from registered or exempt premises and it’s classified correctly.

  3. Reject the waste if the consignment note is missing, incorrect or incomplete.

  4. Fill in part E of the consignment note for any hazardous waste you accept or reject – keep one copy and hand one copy back to the carrier.

  5. Send consignee returns to the Environment Agency, and the waste producer or holder, to report on any hazardous waste you accept or reject.

  6. Keep records (known as a ‘register’).

  You must keep records at the site where the hazardous waste was stored, treated or disposed.

  Records you must keep

  You must keep:

  • consignment notes
  • any related documents, eg ‘carrier schedules’ (list of carriers when there is more than one), records of rejected loads
  • a site inventory that records where waste was stored, treated or disposed of at your waste site – keep this in a secure, marked area that’s accessible in emergencies

  Site inventories for tipped waste

  ‘Tipped waste’ (permanent waste storage, eg landfill) includes:

  Type of storage	Disposal code (from the Waste Framework Directive)
  Deposit into or onto land, eg landfill	D1
  Land treatment	D2
  Deep injection	D3
  Surface impoundment	D4
  Specially engineered landfill	D5
  Release into a water body except seas or oceans	D6
  Permanent storage	D12

  Your site inventory must be a site plan that shows where hazardous waste is stored at your waste site together with its:

  • consignment note code – get this from the consignee return if there’s no consignment note
  • waste description including the waste classification code, its chemical components and hazardous properties

  Use either a grid or contour lines to divide up your site plan.

  Site inventories for all other waste operations

  These requirements are for all other waste operations (eg not tipped waste), including:

  • disposal by other methods
  • treatment
  • recovery
  • incineration

  Your site inventory can be a site plan or table showing the location of waste at your site together with:

  • its consignment note code – get this from the consignee return if there’s no consignment note
  • information cross-referencing each incoming or outgoing waste (waste transfer activities only)

  You must also keep records for each delivery of hazardous waste you accept at your site – include:

  • its weight in kilograms
  • its waste description including the waste classification code, its chemical components and hazardous properties
  • the name, address and postcode of the waste holder or producer it came from
  • the disposal or recovery method you applied to the waste

  How long you must keep records

  The type of waste site you have determines how long you keep records.

  Your waste site	Type of record	How long you must keep it
  Landfill (disposal codes D1 to D6 and D12)	All records	As long as you have a permit
  Other waste site with a permit	Consignment notes	5 years
  Other waste site with a permit	Site inventory and all other records	As long as you have a permit
  Waste sites with an exemption	All records	3 years

  You must send your records to the Environment Agency if you give up or lose your permit.

Rejecting hazardous waste: overview
This guidance explains the:

procedure for rejecting hazardous waste
the rules that apply to the consignee, carrier, producer and holder
Consignee role and responsibilities
Hazardous waste acceptance checks and when you must reject the waste
You must check both the waste and the consignment note before you accept the waste.

You must always reject hazardous waste that arrives at your site:
without a consignment note
with a consignment note that is incomplete or incorrect
You may commit an offence if you don’t.
See step 4 in the consignment guidance on when you must reject waste.

You may also reject waste if your site operations are affected by site closure, maintenance, breakdown or bad weather.

You must decide whether to accept or reject the waste before you sign part E of the consignment note. Once you have signed part E you can’t change your decision, ie if you sign as accepting you can’t later reject a waste - you became the holder of the waste at the point of signing.

When you have an incomplete or incorrect consignment note
You must:

complete part E of the consignment note, enter the waste(s) you are rejecting and the reason
keep one copy of the note
give one copy to the carrier
make copies of the note and send one to each of the consignor, producer and holder (they may be the same) immediately

Hazardous waste arrives without a consignment note
You may commit an offence if you (or another party) create a consignment note when the waste arrives at your site. This is a false and invalid note.
You must provide in writing:

the reason you rejected the waste
the description or classification of the waste, if known
the names of the producer, holder, consignor and carrier
a consignment note code you assign in the format REJECT/XXXXX where ‘XXXXX’ is any 5 letters or numbers you use to give the load a unique code
You must then:

keep a copy of the explanation in your records
give one copy to the carrier
send a copy to each of the producer, holder and consignor (they may be the same) as soon as you can
use this information for your returns to the Environment Agency and to the waste producer or holder

What happens to the rejected waste?
The carrier must tell the Environment Agency and contact the producer or holder for further instructions.

The producer or holder has 3 options. It can:

move the rejected waste to a new consignee
move the rejected waste back to their own premises
ask you to accept the waste you have rejected
All of these require a new consignment note.

If the producer or holder picks options 1 or 2 you need not be involved. It must arrange removal of the waste:

immediately, if you’re not authorised or willing to store the waste temporarily
within 5 working days in all other circumstances

Accepting the rejected waste
You can only accept a hazardous waste with a missing, incomplete or inaccurate consignment note if:

you have first rejected it and explained your reasons for doing so
the producer or holder asks you to accept the rejected waste
your permit or exemption authorises you to do so
You are not obliged to accept it.

If you want to accept it the producer or holder must first:

produce a new consignment note that is complete and correct
address the reasons why the waste was rejected

Complete consignee returns for rejected wastes
You must report any waste you reject on your consignee return.

You will not be charged for this.

If you subsequently accept the rejected waste, this will be entered as a separate consignment on the consignee return.

You may commit an offence if you
1. collect hazardous waste from a producer or holder with a missing, incomplete or incorrect consignment note
2. leave the rejected waste at the consignee’s site
The consignee must tell you why they rejected the waste, and enter the reason in part E of the consignment note. They must give you a copy. You must keep this as a record.

You must immediately telephone the Environment Agency on 03708 506 506 (call charges) and give them the:

1. consignment note code (or advise if there was no note)
2. consignee’s name and address
3. date and time of consignment rejection
4. consignee’s reasons for rejecting the waste
5. producer or consignor details
6. your details
You must then contact the producer or holder entered in part A2 of the consignment note for further instruction.

Tell them the consignee rejected the waste and why.

You must take all reasonable steps to carry out their wishes.

The producer or holder has 3 options. It can:

move the waste to another consignee
move the waste back to the producer or holder - themselves
ask the rejecting consignee to accept it
These require a new consignment note.

You must not return the waste to the producer or holder if you have mixed the waste collected from 2 or more producers, eg in a tanker.

If a consignee rejects your waste, the carrier must contact you at once and explain why.

It is your responsibility to decide what happens next to the rejected waste. You have 3 options, you can:

move the waste to another consignee
move the waste back to your premises
ask the rejecting consignee to accept it

These require a new consignment note.

Once you decide you must do both of the following:

tell the carrier what to do with the waste
telephone the Environment Agency on 03708 506 506 (call charges) to tell them what you have decided to do
The waste must then be moved:

immediately, if the rejecting consignee is not authorised to store the waste or declines to do so
within 5 working days, in all other circumstances

Moving the hazardous waste to another consignee
You can arrange for the rejected waste to move to a new consignee who has a permit or exemption that allows them to accept the waste.

You must tell the new consignee why the first consignee rejected the waste.

Moving the hazardous waste back to your premises
You can arrange for the waste to be returned to the premises it was collected from - the place entered in part A2 of the rejected consignment note.

When you receive hazardous waste you become a consignee and must:

hold a permit or exemption that allows you to store this waste at your premises
provide a consignee return to the Environment Agency, reporting receipt of the waste
This choice is not possible if your carrier mixed your waste with other waste during collection, eg in a tanker.

Ask the consignee to accept your hazardous waste
The consignee who rejected the waste must give their reasons for doing so.

If you want them to accept the rejected waste you must contact them and fully address these reasons.

They are not obliged to accept the rejected waste, but may do so if their permit or exemption allows them to.

New consignment notes for rejected hazardous waste
Each of the 3 producer options requires a new consignment note.

You can ask the carrier to complete a new note for you, eg if the consignee’s site isn’t near your premises.

The carrier can complete parts A, B and D including signing as the consignor. But you are responsible for all the information entered being correct.

Copies of the new consignment note must be provided to the:

original consignor, producer or holder - you
carrier
new consignee

When completing the new note, the consignment note code must have an ‘R’ added at the end of:

the original consignment note code for the rejected consignment - in the format XXXXXX/YYYYYR
the code assigned by the rejecting consignee if there was no note - in the format REJECT/YYYYYR
The information entered in part A2 should be the detail of the original producer or holder’s premises from which the rejected consignment originated - not the details of the site that rejected the waste.

You must use consignment notes to move hazardous waste.

A consignment note must stay with hazardous waste until it reaches its final destination.

Fill in a consignment note

1. Download a consignment note form.
2. Fill in the parts that apply to you.
3. Use a continuation sheet if you need more space.

• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code (2003) – this describes the business activity that produced the waste
• waste classification code, also referred to as LoW (List of Waste) or EWC (European Waste Catalogue) code – this describes the waste

• use a note from your waste contractor or write your own – it must include the information on theform
• buy consignment notices from the Environment Agency – these have 3 colour-coded copies

Consignee returns are reports on any hazardous waste received, treated or disposed of by a business (the ‘consignee’).

You’re a waste producer or holder

You should get consignee returns every quarter from the consignee dealing with your hazardous waste.

Ask for consignee returns in writing if you don’t get them – you need them to keep records.

You should contact the Environment Agency and stop using a waste business if they don’t provide consignee returns.

You’re a consignee

You must send consignee returns every quarter to the:

• Environment Agency
• the waste producer or holder

1. Fill in the consignee returns spreadsheet.
2. Send the spreadsheet to the Environment Agency – either email it to hazwastereturn@environment-agency.gov.uk or upload it online.

• single consignment - £10 (electronic returns) or £19 (paper returns)
• multiple collection - £5 (electronic returns) or £10 (paper returns)

You must have a waste transfer note (or other written information) for each load of non-hazardous business and commercial waste you move off your business premises in England.

Waste transfer notes help show that you’re dealing with your waste properly.

Your business and the business taking your waste both need to:

1. Fill in the sections of the waste transfer note that apply to you.
2. Sign it.
3. Keep a copy for 2 years.
4. Show it to an enforcement officer from your local council or the Environment Agency if asked.

You can register online to fill in, sign and store your waste transfer notes or other written information.
You can add the business taking your waste to your online waste transfer note. If they’re registered, they can fill it in and sign it.

If the business taking your waste isn’t registered you can either:

• invite them to join once you’re registered – select ‘registration invitations’ in the ‘business’ menu
• download a waste transfer note to fill out and sign on paper

• your Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code (2007) – this describes the main activity of the business that produced the waste
• the waste classification code, also referred to as LoW (List of Waste) or EWC (European Waste Catalogue) code – this describes your waste

A season ticket is a single waste transfer note that covers a series of waste transfers.
You can only use a season ticket if every load of waste in the series has the same details for all of the following:

• description, eg it’s the same type of waste or the same mixture of types
• collection point, eg it leaves from the same place
• collector (‘transferee’), eg it’s taken by the same business

1. Register online to create a season ticket and fill in details for the whole series of waste transfers – your season ticket can last for up to 1 year.
2. Ask the business taking your waste to agree to the season ticket using their online account.