Every business that produces waste has a legal duty of care over it, from the moment it's created to the moment it's finally disposed of.
A waste duty of care check is how you prove that responsibility has been met at every step.
This guide explains what these checks involve, why they matter, who should be carrying them out, and how upcoming digital tracking rules are about to change the game for UK businesses.
What is a waste duty of care check?
A waste duty of care check is the process of reviewing and verifying that your organisation's waste is being handled, transported, and disposed of legally and responsibly at every stage of its journey.
In practice, this means checking things like:
- Whether the waste carrier, broker, or dealer you're using is properly registered and authorised
- Whether your waste transfer notes (or hazardous waste consignment notes) are complete, accurate, and correctly stored
- Whether the waste is properly described, classified, and segregated
- Whether the final destination for your waste is a legitimate, permitted facility
Performing waste duty of care checks are a legal requirement for all businesses that produce waste. In Great Britain, the duty of care is set out in Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, backed up by the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 and the government's statutory Waste Duty of Care Code of Practice.
By law, anyone who produces, keeps, transports, treats, or disposes of controlled waste has a legal duty to ensure it's managed safely and legally, right through to its final destination. Failing to meet this duty can result in unlimited fines and, in serious cases, criminal prosecution.
Why Are Duty of Care Checks Important?
Waste duty of care checks are a safeguard for your organisation, the environment, and the wider community affected indirectly by your business’ waste.
Waste duty of care checks help to prevent waste crime and protect the environment.
Illegal waste dumping, fly-tipping, and unlicensed processing cause serious environmental damage and costs England’s economy around £1 billion annually (according to the Environment Agency). Regular duty of care checks prevent waste from reaching illegitimate waste operators by ensuring waste only ever moves through authorised, legitimate routes.
Protecting your organisation from liability.
Your duty of care doesn't end the moment a waste carrier drives off with your skip or your confidential waste bins. Legally, you remain responsible for that waste from the point you produce it until it reaches its final, legitimate disposal point. If a carrier you've used turns out to be unlicensed, or your waste is illegally dumped further down the chain, your organisation can still be held liable, even if you had no direct knowledge of the wrongdoing.
The legal standard you're held to is one of reasonableness: did you, as an organisation and in the role you occupy, take all the reasonable steps that a person in a similar organisation and a similar role would have taken? Duty of care checks are how you consider your answer to that question.
Avoiding fines and reputational damage.
Regulators, including the Environment Agency, have the power to issue substantial fines and pursue prosecution for duty of care breaches.
Beyond the financial cost, being linked to illegal waste disposal (even unknowingly) can seriously damage your organisation's reputation with customers, partners, and regulators.
Who Should Undertake a Waste Duty of Care Check?
Waste duty of care checks can be undertaken internally (for example, by a member of staff), or externally (such as by an external consultant). What is most important is that the person who is undertaking the check is competent.
A competent person, in this context, is someone who has sufficient knowledge and understanding of waste legislation, in order to be able to know what "good" documentation looks like, and to spot red flags such as missing carrier registration numbers, vague waste descriptions, or inconsistencies between what's collected and what's declared.
The competent person might be a dedicated environmental or compliance manager, a trained facilities lead, or an external auditor, but it should never be an informal, tick-box exercise carried out without proper knowledge of the rules.
If a waste duty of care is not done by a competent person, organisations can end up unknowingly caught up in illegitimate waste movement. A competent person knows what questions to ask, what evidence to request, and how to tell when something doesn't add up.
How are the rules around duty of care checks set to change?
Waste duty of care compliance is changing, with the rollout of Digital Waste Tracking replacing the paper-based system that's underpinned waste record-keeping for decades.
Currently, much of the UK's waste duty of care system relies on paper Waste Transfer Notes.
But from 28 April 2026, digital waste tracking became available on a voluntary basis for permitted operators receiving waste onto their site.
From October 2026, it stops being optional: permitted waste operators in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland will be legally required to use the system, with Scotland following in January 2027.
Digital Waste Tracking is being rolled out in phases. Receiving sites will be included in the first phase of the rollout, with waste carriers, brokers and dealers being brought in afterwards.
Government guidance suggests waste-producing businesses will feel the effects over time as more of the supply chain moves onto digital records. Penalties for getting it wrong are expected to sit alongside the existing duty of care offences, meaning fixed and variable monetary penalties for breaches, and potentially criminal prosecution for serious or repeated breaches.
For anyone producing waste: even though the legal duty to register currently sits with receiving sites and carriers, your duty of care doesn't disappear because you're not the one logging into the system. You still need confidence that your waste is passing through partners who'll be compliant once this goes live. Getting your own documentation and checks in good shape now just makes that transition significantly easier.
How can iCOR help with waste duty of care checks?
iCOR's audit process includes dedicated questions covering your organisation's waste activities. From there, we guide you through a spot check of a piece of your waste documentation to make sure that your waste transfer notes have been correctly filled out. This will help you to be confident that your duty of care obligations are being met. iCOR’s legal register and audit is updated monthly, meaning that you will never fall behind on changes to waste legislation, such as the Digital Waste Tracking regulations.
Not only this, but iCOR now offers waste duty of care support. Our EHS legal specialists can act as your competent person to complete your waste duty of care checks on your behalf.
If you want to take the first step towards feeling confident with your waste duty of care checks and get ahead of the upcoming digital tracking changes, book a demo here to learn how iCOR can support you with your waste duty of care checks.