Waste Duty of Care Checker

What the duty of care is

The duty of care sits in section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. It applies to anyone who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste, and to dealers and brokers who have control of it. The statutory code of practice issued under that section sets out what compliance looks like in practice. Failure to comply is an offence, and the code can be used as evidence in proceedings.

The core duties are straightforward to state and harder to keep on top of. Waste must be stored safely and securely, transferred only to authorised persons, described accurately, and accompanied by the correct documentation. You also need to keep records and make them available to regulators on request.

The rules are not identical across the UK. The code of practice above applies in England and Wales, with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales as regulators alongside local authorities. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own codes and regulators. If you operate across borders, you follow the code for the nation where the waste activity happens, and you may need to meet more than one set of requirements.

Waste classification and candidate codes

Classification is the part that most often goes wrong. A waste is generally hazardous if it, or the substances in it, are harmful to human health or the environment. The technical guidance for classification, known as WM3, explains how to assess waste and includes the List of Waste codes used to describe it. That assessment needs competence in hazardous waste and some chemistry to apply properly.

The checker returns candidate codes based on the stream you select. Treat them as candidates only. A code cannot be confirmed from a name or a process alone. The same description can cover wastes with different properties depending on what the material has been in contact with, how it was produced and whether it has been mixed. Oils, solvents, sludges, filter media, absorbents and aqueous wastes all need the actual composition considered before a code is settled.

Mirror entries are a common source of confusion. They use paired List of Waste entries: a hazardous code marked with an asterisk and an alternative non-hazardous code. The correct entry depends on the waste assessment, including its composition, hazardous properties and relevant persistent organic pollutant limits. Getting that decision right affects the paperwork and the routes available for the waste.

Carriers, brokers and checks

You must transfer waste only to an authorised person. In practice that means checking that the carrier, broker or dealer holds the authorisation required for the activity in the nation concerned. Authorisation details can change, so checks are worth repeating rather than treating them as a one-off exercise.

The checker asks who carries your waste and how often it leaves site, then sets out the carrier authorisation questions that apply for the nation selected. It also flags separation duties, because mixing a hazardous stream with a non-hazardous one can turn the whole container into hazardous waste and close off disposal routes that were previously open.

Container choice follows from the stream, the contamination and the frequency of collection. A stream that leaves daily in small quantities needs a different approach from one that accumulates over months. The checker suggests container types to discuss, not a fixed answer.

Limits of this tool

This checker is a prompt, not a regulatory certification and not a classification decision. It cannot see your process, your material safety data sheets or your sampling results. It does not know what has been mixed into a container since the last collection.

It does not confirm whether a specific waste is hazardous. It does not replace a waste classification assessment, and it does not replace the code of practice or the guidance from your regulator. Where a stream is unusual, mixed or has changed since the last assessment, the classification needs to be revisited before the paperwork is completed.

Water company requirements, permit conditions and local rules are outside the scope of this tool. If your site holds an environmental permit, the conditions in that permit take precedence over general guidance and should be checked separately.

Where the work goes next

Once you have a checklist, the practical questions are usually about collection, treatment and disposal routes for each stream. We can help with industrial waste disposal, hazardous waste management and liquid waste disposal where a stream needs a route that matches its classification. If your paperwork is thin, a waste audit can establish what you actually produce before anything else changes.

For mixed loads and site clearances, factory clearance and roll on roll off skip hire cover larger volumes. Where recycling is the aim, industrial recycling and WEEE recycling deal with the streams that have a recovery route. The waste transfer note page explains the document itself in more detail.

Sources

• Waste duty of care code of practice, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Environment Agency, checked 2 October 2026.
• Waste classification technical guidance (WM3), Environment Agency, checked 2 October 2026.
• Dispose of hazardous waste, GOV.UK, checked 2 October 2026.