Your legal requirements

As a business, you have a legal requirement to ensure that all your waste is being disposed of correctly by a licensed waste carrier. With over 30 years’ experience, you can rest assured that our dedicated and professional service will ensure your legal compliance and minimise your environmental impact.

Terms and conditions

These terms and conditions apply in all cases where bulk refuse containers are hired from us or refuse is collected by us under the terms of our agreement with you.

Terms and conditions

Environment Act 2021 Legislative Changes

On 1 April 2025 new recycling regulations will come into effect for businesses operating in England as part of The Environment Act 2021. 
 
It will require businesses across England to ensure recycling and waste material is collected by a licensed waste service and where a business produces:

• food waste, it separates food waste from non-recyclable waste.
• paper/card, it must separate paper/card from non-recyclable waste.
• plastics, it must separate plastics from non-recyclable waste.
• glass, it must separate glass from non-recyclable waste.
• cans/tins, it must separate cans/tins from non-recyclable waste.

Duty of Care

As a producer of waste, your business must comply with the Duty of Care legislation introduced in April 1992. Whoever collects and disposes of your recycling and waste must hold a valid waste carriers license.

As a business waste customer, you must complete an annual Duty of Care form that you will receive alongside your invoice and return it to the council. You must also retain a copy of the Duty of Care form for at least two years as this includes proof that we are a registered waste carrier. Failure to produce your Duty of Care certificate when requested could result in a £300 fixed penalty notice or prosecution.

If a business is found not to have this legal documentation in place, they may be liable to a £300 fixed penalty notice or a £5000 fine on conviction or an unlimited fine on indictment.

Pre-treatment of waste

Under the pre-treatment regulations, your business is obliged to ensure that a proportion of your waste is 'treated' before disposal. This is done either by separating various wastes for recycling or sending it to a sorting facility.

For example, a business separating their paper and cardboard or glass for recycling from their other waste would be deemed to have satisfied the pre-treatment requirements.

Hazardous waste

We do not collect hazardous waste this includes but is not limited to clinical waste, electrical items, fluorescent tubes and solvents. An agreement must be signed with an organisation licensed to carry and dispose of the waste. If you exceed volumes of over 500kg in hazardous waste you must register with the Environmental Agency.

Business-related litter (food on the go and takeaway packaging)

We want to work with all local businesses to make sure any litter generated from your business is minimal and you are able to manage it. We will contact you if we think this is the case.

If we believe that your business is having a negative impact on the local environment, we can use street litter clearing/street litter control notices to address this - you may need to put measures in place to prevent this harm to the environment from happening.

If improvements are not made, the business may be issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice or £2500 if convicted.