Business Waste
** IMPORTANT **From 31 March 2025, businesses will need to separate the following groups of recyclable materials:
The new guidelines apply to all businesses, healthcare establishments and academic institutions but small businesses with fewer than 10 full-time employees are temporarily exempt until 31 March 2027. There is also no minimum food waste weight before the new regulations apply.
Businesses should speak to their existing commercial waste supplier to discuss arrangements for separate food waste and recycling collections.
Test Valley Borough Council does not operate a commercial waste collection service.
For specific guidance and advice visit: The Business of Recycling England |
All businesses produce waste, whether this is a few sheets of scrap paper to several skip loads a week.
When you create waste, you have a duty of care to ensure the waste is kept safe, stored appropriately and disposed of properly. The duty of care applies to all businesses, regardless of size - see below for more information on your duty of care - or alternatively, click here: GOV.UK.
Businesses can contact any licensed waste service provider to set up a collection contract.
Test Valley Borough Council does not operate a commercial waste collection service.
Duty of Care – your business waste responsibilities under sections 33 and 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
If you are a business, the waste Duty of Care applies to you.
Commercial, industrial and household wastes are classified as ‘controlled waste’. The waste duty of care applies to all controlled waste – this means that waste materials produced as part of your business or within your workplace are regulated by law.
If you produce or deal with waste that has certain hazardous properties, you will also have to comply with the additional requirements of the hazardous/special waste regulations.
What is the Duty of Care? As a business, you have a duty to ensure that any waste you produce is handled safely and in accordance with the law. This is the ‘duty of care’ and it applies to anyone who produces, imports, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste from business or industry or acts as a waste broker in this respect. You must make sure that anyone you pass your waste on to, such as a waste contractor, scrap metal merchant, recycler or skip hire company, is authorised to take it.
You and/or your business have a duty to take all reasonable measures to:
- prevent anyone keeping, depositing, disposing of or recovering your ‘controlled waste’ without a waste management licence or an exemption from the need for a licence
- ensure that their waste management licence has not been suspended or partially revoked and that they are not in breach of the conditions of that licence or exemption
- stop materials escaping from your control or the control of anyone else by packaging it appropriately and robustly
- ensure that waste is only transferred to an authorised person or organisation
- ensure that the waste being transferred is accompanied by a written description that will enable anyone receiving it to dispose of it or handle it in accordance with his or her own duty of care.
This legislation is also meant to ensure that the transfer of waste is only to an authorised person or to a person for authorised transport purposes and that a written description of waste is also transferred. This description is called a Waste Transfer Note (WTN).
A WTN is usually a one-page sheet supplied to you by your waste contractor and it should contain the following details:
- your company details
- type and quantity of waste
- method of waste containment
- time, date and location of waste collection
- details of the company collecting the waste
You are required by law to keep copies of your waste transfer notes for two years.
Waste Enforcement
The Council’s Environmental Service Officers are authorised to check businesses to ensure they are practising appropriate waste management. This means an officer may come to your premises and ask you to demonstrate your waste is being contained adequately and that you have a valid waste contract and the required WTNs.
Failure to comply with your Duty of Care is a criminal offence. Test Valley Borough Council may issue a £300 Fixed Penalty Notice for this offence. If significant breaches occur, a prosecution may be sought which carries an unlimited fine.