Glossary of UK waste terms

List of Wastes codes ending in 99, which mean "not otherwise specified". They are a last resort: use one only after working through the other chapters in the legal order, and never when a more suitable code exists in another chapter.

EWC codes explained guide · Technical Guidance WM3: Waste Classification - Guidance on the classification and assessment of waste

A List of Wastes entry that is always hazardous or always non-hazardous, with no assessment able to change it. Any non-edible oil, for example, fits an absolute hazardous entry and stays hazardous even if it shows no hazardous properties.

EWC codes explained guide · Technical Guidance WM3: Waste Classification - Guidance on the classification and assessment of waste

The unique code your organisation is given once it registers with Defra's Report receipt of waste service. You give it to your software provider, and one code covers every site your organisation operates.

Digital waste tracking guide · Report receipt of waste

Someone with a valid registration as a waste carrier, broker or dealer, or a waste operator with a permit or registered exemption to accept that waste. Under the duty of care you must take all reasonable steps to make sure anyone you transfer waste to is authorised.

Waste duty of care guide · Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version)

A business that arranges the transport and management of waste for someone else. A broker has a duty of care and must be registered even if it never takes physical possession of the waste.

Waste duty of care guide · Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version)

A business that transports waste. In England it must register with the Environment Agency, renew an upper tier registration every 3 years and report changes to its details or activities within 28 days.

Waste duty of care guide · Register or renew as a waste carrier, broker or dealer

The prefixes on carrier, broker and dealer registration numbers on the Environment Agency's register in England. An upper tier number starts CBDU and a lower tier number starts CBDL.

Checking a carrier's registration guide · Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers

Anyone who receives, or rejects, hazardous waste. That includes a permitted or exempt facility taking waste from others and a business moving its own hazardous waste between its premises.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste: how to complete your consignee return

A report on any hazardous waste received, treated or disposed of by a business. In England and Wales it is sent every quarter, within one month of the quarter ending, with a separate return to the producer or holder.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste: Consignee returns

The document hazardous waste moves on, used instead of a waste transfer note. It must stay with the waste until it reaches its final destination.

Waste duty of care guide · Hazardous waste: Consignment notes

The reference that identifies a hazardous waste consignment note, entered against each consignment on a consignee return. A code from a Scottish or Northern Irish note is converted for the return, for example SA3876543 becomes SCA038/76543.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste: how to complete your consignee return

The waste covered by the waste duty of care and by digital waste tracking. Most household, commercial and industrial waste is controlled waste.

Digital waste tracking guide · Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive

Codes D1 to D15, which name disposal operations, such as D1 for deposit into or on to land and D10 for incineration on land. They come from Annex I of the Waste Framework Directive.

D and R codes explained guide · Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives: Annex I

The Northern Ireland department responsible for waste regulation, through the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. It says reporting through digital waste tracking becomes mandatory for waste receivers in Northern Ireland from January 2027.

Digital waste tracking guide · Digital Waste Tracking

A business that buys waste in order to sell it. A dealer has a duty of care and must be registered even if it never takes physical possession of the waste.

Waste duty of care guide · Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version)

A UK-wide project to record waste movements online, which aims to join up and eventually replace multiple paper-based systems. It is being built in phases, starting with the sites that receive waste.

Digital waste tracking guide · Digital waste tracking

The status of a waste receiver for whom digital tools are impractical because of age, disability or location; preferring paper, or the extra time and cost, does not count. A digitally excluded receiver needs a number from its regulator and keeps written records instead, for at least 3 years.

Digital waste tracking guide · Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive

Any waste operation which is not recovery, even if it reclaims some substances or energy along the way. Disposal operations are listed as D codes.

D and R codes explained guide · Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives: Article 3

The legal duty on anyone who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste, or controls it as a dealer or broker. It means keeping waste under control, passing it only to someone authorised to take it and describing it accurately in writing.

Waste duty of care guide · Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 34

The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018, under which SEPA has regulated waste activities since 1 November 2025. Existing carrier and broker registrations became EASR registrations automatically and kept their old expiry date.

Carrier registration costs guide · Moving to the new Regulations

The regulator for waste in England, often shortened to EA. Permitted sites in England send it waste tonnage returns, which it uses to monitor compliance with permit conditions and collect national waste statistics.

Waste tonnage returns guide · National operator waste returns

The authorisation a permitted waste site operates under. Its reporting conditions set how often the site sends waste returns, and Schedule 1 lists the disposal and recovery codes it may use.

Waste tonnage returns guide · Waste returns spreadsheet for email returns: Version 17.0

The six-digit waste classification code, also called a List of Waste (LoW) or European Waste Catalogue code, that identifies a waste and shows whether it is hazardous. It must go on the paperwork when you describe waste to your contractor, such as transfer and consignment notes.

EWC codes explained guide · Classify different types of waste: your legal responsibilities

Waste classified under a List of Wastes entry marked with an asterisk (*). It moves on a consignment note rather than a waste transfer note, and in Scotland it is called special waste.

EWC codes explained guide · Commission Decision 2000/532/EC, Annex: List of waste

Codes HP 1 to HP 15 for the hazardous properties a waste can have. You assess them to decide which side of a mirror entry a waste falls on, and every HP code that applies goes on a hazardous waste consignee return.

EWC codes explained guide · Technical Guidance WM3: Waste Classification - Guidance on the classification and assessment of waste

A household waste recycling centre. Household waste received from residents at an HWRC in England does not have to be reported through digital waste tracking.

Digital waste tracking guide · Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive

Codes D13 to D15 and R12 to R13, which describe a step before the real disposal or recovery, such as blending, repackaging, exchange or storage. UK law on waste shipments calls them interim disposal and interim recovery.

D and R codes explained guide · Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste: Article 2

The single legal list of waste codes, set out in Commission Decision 2000/532/EC, which each UK nation's regulations point to. Its chapters must be searched in the order of precedence the Decision sets out, leaving codes ending in 99 until last.

EWC codes explained guide · Commission Decision 2000/532/EC, Annex: List of waste

The carrier registration for businesses that only carry waste they produce themselves, as long as it is not construction or demolition waste. Charities, voluntary organisations and waste collection or disposal authorities also register in the lower tier.

Carrier registration costs guide · Deciding if you are a waste carrier, broker or dealer

A pair or group of List of Wastes entries where the same waste could be hazardous or non-hazardous. You must assess its composition, hazardous properties and POPs before choosing, and if the composition genuinely cannot be found it goes under the hazardous entry.

EWC codes explained guide · Technical Guidance WM3: Waste Classification - Guidance on the classification and assessment of waste

Hazardous waste collected from two or more premises in a single journey by one carrier, all taken to the same consignee. The carrier gives the round a number agreed with the consignee, and gives each stop a collection number.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste: consignment note guidance

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency, part of DAERA, which regulates waste in Northern Ireland and runs hazardous waste consignment notes there.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste

A waste return for a period in which no waste was received or removed. You must send a return for every period unless your permit has been fully surrendered, and the Environment Agency's form records a nil return automatically when there is no tonnage.

Waste tonnage returns guide · National operator waste returns

Natural Resources Wales, the regulator for waste in Wales. Businesses based in Wales register with it as carriers, brokers or dealers.

Waste duty of care guide · Register or renew as a waste carrier, broker or dealer

The part of a hazardous waste consignment note the consignee completes when the waste arrives. You must decide whether to accept or reject the waste before signing it, because once signed as accepted you cannot later reject it.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste: rejected loads guidance

The second phase of digital waste tracking, which brings in waste carriers, brokers and dealers, called waste collectors by Defra. The planned dates are a private beta from autumn 2026, a public beta from spring 2027 and mandatory use from October 2027, but these are targets, not law.

Digital waste tracking for carriers guide · Developing the digital waste tracking service

Persistent organic pollutants. When classifying a mirror entry you check whether any substances in the waste are POPs, and a waste containing POPs above the limits goes under the hazardous entry.

EWC codes explained guide · Technical Guidance WM3: Waste Classification - Guidance on the classification and assessment of waste

A person or business that produces waste. Producers are covered by the duty of care, so they must keep their waste under control, describe it accurately and pass it only to someone authorised to take it.

Waste duty of care guide · Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 34

The online list a regulator keeps of registered waste carriers, brokers and dealers. Before passing waste on, search the register of the regulator the business is registered with and check its name, registration number, tier or type and expiry date.

Checking a carrier's registration guide · Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers

Codes R1 to R13, which name recovery operations, such as R4 for recycling or reclamation of metals and metal compounds. They come from Annex II of the Waste Framework Directive.

D and R codes explained guide · Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives: Annex II

Defra's interface that waste software uses to send each load you receive to the Report receipt of waste service, using your organisation's API code. The other way to report is to fill in and upload Defra's spreadsheet.

Choosing DWT software guide · Report receipt of waste

Any operation whose principal result is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials that would otherwise have been used. Recovery operations are listed as R codes.

D and R codes explained guide · Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives: Article 3

An authorisation that, like a permit, can allow a waste operator to accept waste, making them an authorised person for that waste. A site on an exemption must make sure accepting a load does not break the exemption's criteria, such as waste limits.

Waste duty of care guide · Waste duty of care: code of practice (accessible version)

The entry used instead of a disposal or recovery code on a consignee return for hazardous waste you rejected. Rejected consignments must still go on the return, and there is no fee for them.

Consignee returns guide · Hazardous waste: how to complete your consignee return

Defra's digital waste tracking service, which anyone licensed or permitted to receive controlled waste must use to report every load. Each record is due within 2 working days, starting the day after the waste arrives.

Digital waste tracking guide · Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive

One transfer note covering repeated transfers of the same non-hazardous waste over a period of up to a year, sometimes called an annual waste transfer note. The holder, carrier and type of waste must stay the same, and a schedule records the date, time and quantity of each transfer.

Waste transfer notes guide · Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the regulator for waste in Scotland. It enforces Scotland's own duty of care code of practice.

Waste duty of care guide · Managing controlled waste - duty of care: code of practice

A code for the business handing waste over, which must be given on a waste transfer note. In England and Wales the note must give the SIC code of the transferor.

Waste transfer notes guide · The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, regulation 35

The name for hazardous waste in Scotland, regulated by SEPA under the Special Waste Regulations 1996. The consignee sends SEPA a completed copy of each consignment note.

Consignee returns guide · Special Waste

The manager whose technical competence covers a permitted waste site. If your permit authorises waste activities, your waste return must include details about the technically competent manager at your site.

Waste tonnage returns guide · National operator waste returns

SEPA's registration for carrying other people's waste in Scotland, which renews every three years. A separate transporting your own waste registration covers only a business's own waste.

Checking a carrier's registration guide · Transporting waste EASR-SC-035

The carrier registration for anyone who carries construction or demolition waste, carries waste made by someone else, or acts as a broker or dealer. House clearance and scrap collection are both upper tier.

Carrier registration costs guide · Deciding if you are a waste carrier, broker or dealer

The three permits (waste controller, waste transporter and controller-transporter) that will replace carrier, broker and dealer registration in England, with a registered exemption as the alternative. Upper tier registrants will apply for a permit when their registration is due for renewal.

Carrier registration costs guide · Reforming the waste carrier broker and dealer system

SEPA's return for all operators of waste activities at a registration or permit level in Scotland, sent quarterly or annually on SEPA's Excel form. Returns are due by the 28th of the month after each period.

Waste tonnage returns guide · Waste data returns

Directive 2008/98/EC, whose Annexes I and II list the D and R codes. The UK has left the EU, but the Environmental Protection Act 1990 still defines it, and waste law still refers to it.

D and R codes explained guide · Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 75

The order in which businesses must deal with waste as far as they reasonably can: prevent, reuse, recycle, then recover. The written description of waste on a transfer must include a statement confirming the hierarchy has been applied.

Waste duty of care guide · Dispose of business or commercial waste: Your responsibilities

Northern Ireland's waste return, a spreadsheet sent to NIEA within one month of the end of each quarter. NIEA numbers its quarters from April, so its quarter 1 is April to June.

Waste tonnage returns guide · Waste summary returns form and guidance

A permitted site's report of the waste it has received or removed, sent to the Environment Agency by sites in England. Most permits need one every quarter, and missing the 23:59 deadline is a breach of your permit.

Waste tonnage returns guide · National operator waste returns

The written record needed for each load of non-hazardous waste passed to another business, or a document with the same information, such as an invoice. Both businesses fill in the sections that apply to them, sign it and keep a copy.

Waste transfer notes guide · Dispose of business or commercial waste: Waste transfer notes

The Environment Agency's technical guidance on waste classification, which explains how to use the List of Wastes and work out whether a waste is hazardous. Its Appendix A holds the list with each entry's type.

EWC codes explained guide · Waste classification technical guidance