Business waste regulations: UK Business Waste Duties
The UK Business Waste Duties carries 6 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 1 to 3 year, read 27 October 2026.
3 of the 4 named sources read in full publish a figure; 4 publish none, read 27 October 2026.
Every figure, with its source
One row per published figure: the figure as the source's own page publishes it, the page, and the day it was read. A figure that is not on a page we read is not on this one.
| Source | Figure | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK | 3year | 2026-10-24 |
| Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK | 2year | 2026-10-24 |
| Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK | 2year | 2026-10-24 |
| Simpler recycling: workplace recycling in England - GOV.UK | 2week | 2026-10-24 |
| Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes - GOV.UK | 2year | 2026-10-27 |
| Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes - GOV.UK | 2year | 2026-10-27 |
| Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK | 1year | 2026-10-24 |
The sentence each figure was read from (7)
- Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-24:
three years for hazardous waste consignment notes (different retention periods apply for consignees (receivers) of hazardous waste; see further detail in the hazardous waste guidance)
- Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-24:
2 years for non-hazardous waste
- Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-24:
2 years for season tickets
- Simpler recycling: workplace recycling in England - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-24:
It is not recommended that you store food waste for more than 2 weeks.
- Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-27:
Keep a paper or electronic copy for 2 years.
- Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-27:
You must keep your season ticket and schedule for 2 years after the last waste transfer.
- Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK, read 2026-10-24:
The season ticket can last up to one year and be used for regular transfers of the same type of non-hazardous waste with the same carrier.
Read in full, publishes no figure
4 named sources were read in full on the dates shown and print no usable figure. They are counted, never filled in.
- The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, read 2026-10-28: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Environment Act 2021, read 2026-10-28: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, read 2026-10-28: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- Environmental Protection Act 1990, read 2026-10-28: every candidate on the page was refused
Methodology
Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2).
3 of the 4 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 4 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 11 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere.
The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in year (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 9 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded.
The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): one row per duty per UK jurisdiction, quoted from the instrument or the regulator with its effective date: the duty of care (Environmental Protection Act 1990 s34) and its code of practice, the transfer note and its two-year retention, the hierarchy declaration (Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 reg 12), the separate-collection duty (reg 13; Simpler Recycling in England from 31 March 2025, micro-firms from 31 March 2027), the Welsh workplace recycling regulations from 6 April 2024, the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, and the Northern Ireland duty of care; the derived checklist of what a business must have and keep
9 candidate sentences on these pages were refused by a reviewer; each refusal and its reason is recorded in the review ledger.
Sources (15)
- Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version) - GOV.UK(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Environmental Protection Act 1990(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Simpler recycling: workplace recycling in England - GOV.UK(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes - GOV.UK(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- The Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Classify different types of waste: your legal responsibilities - GOV.UK(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Workplace recycling | GOV.WALES(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Environment Act 2021(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Dispose of business or commercial waste: Your responsibilities - GOV.UK(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Environmental Protection Act 1990(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- Duty of care - Your waste responsibilities | NetRegs | Environmental guidance for your business in Northern Ireland & Sc(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- legislation.gov.uk(the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
Cite or embed this figure
The UK Business Waste Duties carries 6 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 1 to 3 year, read 27 October 2026.
3 of the 4 named sources read in full publish a figure; 4 publish none, read 27 October 2026.
Cite as: "businesswastecollection.co.uk UK Business Waste Duties", updated 2026-10-28, https://businesswastecollection.co.uk/datasets/uk-business-waste-duties/.
Download the CSV (7 rows, computed 2026-10-28)
Questions this data answers
What does UK law make a business do with the waste it produces, in each nation, and from when?
The UK Business Waste Duties carries 6 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 1 to 3 year, read 27 October 2026.
Where do the figures in the UK Business Waste Duties come from?
Every figure is quoted from its source's own page and dated (last read 27 Oct 2026). 4 named sources were read and 3 publish a figure; the 1 that publish none are recorded as not published, never estimated.