Waste Management Duty of Care and Waste Hierarchy

Waste Management in Brief

Duty of Care under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 means waste must be transferred only to authorised parties with proper documentation. Waste hierarchy - prevent, reuse, recycle, recover, dispose - drives where waste should go.

Waste Management and Duty of Care

Waste is unavoidable. A business that does not generate waste is either a business that does not do very much or one that has not noticed. Even a modest office produces paper, cardboard, food waste, general rubbish, end-of-life IT equipment and used batteries. A manufacturing or construction business layers on packaging, offcuts, solvents, used oils, contaminated PPE, hazardous substances and WEEE. Managing all of this properly is both a legal obligation and a core part of any environmental management system.

Waste management under an EMS is about more than getting the bins emptied. It covers the waste hierarchy (prevention first, disposal last), segregation at source, safe storage, authorised collection, documented transfer, and the record keeping that proves the loop closes. The law - principally the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 - sets the minimum. A working EMS goes further.

The UK Waste Duty of Care

Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 imposes a duty of care on anyone who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste. Put plainly: if your business generates waste, you are responsible for it until it reaches a licensed end point, and you have to be able to prove it.

The duty of care has four practical requirements:

Waste must be stored securely and without escape. Containers in good condition, covered where weather would cause a problem, secured against theft or wildlife.

Waste must only be transferred to an authorised person. In most cases that means a registered waste carrier (check the carrier's registration on the Environment Agency public register).

A written description of the waste must accompany the transfer - the waste transfer note. For hazardous waste, a consignment note is required instead.

The producer must retain transfer notes for at least two years, and hazardous waste consignment notes for at least three.

Breach of the duty of care is a criminal offence carrying unlimited fines in the Crown Court and up to twelve months imprisonment in the magistrates' court for the worst cases. Directors can be personally liable.

The Waste Hierarchy

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 require waste to be managed according to the hierarchy:

Prevention - avoid producing waste in the first place. Better purchasing, longer-life products, reduced packaging.

Preparing for reuse - repair, refurbish, redeploy rather than discard.

Recycling - segregate material streams so they can be reprocessed into new products.

Other recovery - including energy recovery from waste that cannot be recycled.

Disposal - landfill or incineration without energy recovery, as the last resort.

Every waste transfer note in England and Wales must include a declaration that the waste hierarchy has been applied. It is not just a ticked box: the producer has to be able to show they have genuinely considered higher-hierarchy options.

Segregation and Storage of Waste

Good waste management starts at source. Segregating waste into separate streams - paper and card, plastics, metals, glass, food waste, general mixed, hazardous - at the point of generation makes recycling viable and dramatically reduces overall disposal cost. Once streams are mixed they can rarely be separated economically; contaminated loads often end up going to landfill or incineration regardless of intent.

Storage arrangements need to reflect the type of waste:

General and recycling: covered containers, appropriate signage, clear and regular collection schedules.

Food waste: sealed containers, frequent collection, pest control considerations.

WEEE: separate containment to avoid damage, especially for batteries which can ignite.

Hazardous waste: segregated storage in a dedicated area, clearly labelled, compatible substances only, appropriate secondary containment for liquids.

Oils and chemicals: bunded storage, spill kits available, no mixing between waste types.

Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste is anything that displays one or more of the hazardous properties set out in the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 - typically oils, solvents, paints, many cleaning chemicals, some electrical equipment, asbestos, fluorescent tubes, clinical waste. Producers of hazardous waste have extra obligations:

A consignment note must accompany every movement, not a standard transfer note.

Consignment notes must be retained for at least three years.

Hazardous waste must only be sent to facilities authorised to accept it.

It must not be mixed with non-hazardous waste or with other hazardous wastes in a way that would prevent proper treatment.

Producers exceeding 500 kg per year in England previously had to register with the Environment Agency; the registration requirement was removed in 2016 but the other duties remain in full force.

Producer Responsibility Obligations

On top of the duty of care, the UK operates several producer responsibility regimes. Organisations that handle significant volumes of packaging, batteries or electrical equipment may be caught by one or more of them.

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (EPR): businesses above threshold (currently £1 million turnover and 25 tonnes of packaging per year) must register, report packaging data and pay fees towards local authority recycling costs.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013: producers of electrical and electronic equipment must join a compliance scheme and fund the collection and recycling of waste EEE.

Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 (as amended): producers placing more than one tonne of portable batteries on the market annually must join a compliance scheme.

For most general businesses these regimes apply as end-users rather than producers - used batteries and WEEE go back through the appropriate compliance routes. For importers, manufacturers and rebranders, the producer obligations apply directly.

The waste duty of care catches out more businesses than any other environmental requirement. I have seen prosecutions for something as simple as sending mixed construction waste with a contractor who turned out to be unregistered. The duty sits with the producer - pleading ignorance of the carrier's credentials is not a defence.

Basic discipline protects you: check carrier registration on the Environment Agency register before every new arrangement, keep transfer notes in a defined place, match invoices to notes, and for hazardous waste always use a consignment note. If it ever goes to court, those records are what you will be judged on.

We run segregated bins for paper and card, plastics, metals, general and food waste. Hazardous waste - solvent cleaners, oily rags, waste oil, fluorescent tubes - goes in locked bunded storage and only moves on a consignment note. Transfer notes are scanned and filed by month, and we reconcile them against waste invoices at period end. Took a bit of setting up but it runs itself now.

When I audit waste management I trace a thread from the bins back through transfer notes and invoices to the carriers' registrations, and forward to the annual total the organisation reports. A gap anywhere - missing notes, unregistered carriers, a stream not covered, no hierarchy declaration - is a nonconformity. The paperwork seems dull until it is needed.

Practical Compliance Guidance

IMS1 Section 6 covers waste management within the environmental management system, including waste segregation, storage, transfer and producer responsibility obligations.

The following alphaZ documents support managing waste and meeting duty of care obligations.

alphaZ document	How to use it
ISO 14001 Toolkit	The full EMS toolkit, including waste management templates, transfer note formats and the environmental aspects register.
F-ENV1 Waste Transfer Note	The standard waste transfer note template for non-hazardous controlled waste. Completed and signed by producer and carrier, retained for at least two years.
F-ENV2 Waste Matrix	Maps the waste streams produced by the organisation against segregation, storage and disposal arrangements. A working overview of how waste is managed.
P-69 Waste Management Policy	The organisation's policy statement on waste - covering the hierarchy, segregation, duty of care and responsibilities.
PP-6-100 Environmental Management Policy Procedure	The operational procedure expanding on waste management requirements including hazardous waste, storage and reporting.
Toolbox Talk - Use of Bins	Short briefing covering correct segregation at source and why it matters. Deliver as part of induction and when arrangements change.
ER9 Legal Register	Includes the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Waste Regulations 2011, Hazardous Waste Regulations and producer responsibility regimes - the legal anchor for waste management.

Note - all the above files can be downloaded with an alphaZ subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do we need to keep waste transfer notes?

Waste transfer notes must be retained for at least two years. Hazardous waste consignment notes must be retained for at least three years. Most organisations keep a digital archive organised by month, with the paper originals filed for at least the statutory period.

Do we need to check our waste carrier's registration?

Yes. Transferring waste to an unregistered carrier is a duty of care breach. The Environment Agency public register lets you check registration status and scope. Most organisations check a new carrier's registration on appointment and at least annually thereafter.

What is the difference between a transfer note and a consignment note?

A waste transfer note is used for non-hazardous controlled waste. A consignment note is required for hazardous waste and carries additional information including the waste producer's premises reference, hazardous properties and any pre-treatment applied. The two are not interchangeable.

Does every bin need to be separately labelled?

Clear signage at the point of use is important for segregation to work in practice. Standard colour coding helps but is not legally mandated for most workplace waste. What matters is that the system is consistent, staff know how to use it, and segregated streams remain separate through to collection.

UK Legislation

The following UK legislation is directly relevant to waste management and duty of care. Organisations outside the UK should identify the equivalent legislation applicable in their jurisdiction.

Further Resources