Commercial waste complaints

Businesses must dispose of all of their waste properly, whether it's a small amount of waste paper from an office, or large scale by-products from a factory.

If a business isn't disposing of its waste properly we can investigate and take action.

What is the problem?

Any waste that comes from a business activity is commercial waste, and businesses have a duty of care to dispose of their commercial waste properly. That means they must:

do everything they can to reduce, reuse and recycle
sort and store their waste safely and securely
use a licensed carrier to dispose of their waste (such as a trade waste contract)

A business could be committing an offence if they:

put waste into another business’s bins instead of their own
dispose of rubbish in public bins
leave waste around bins or outside their property

It is an offence for a business to burn its waste. It is also an offence for a business to take waste home to dispose of in a domestic bin or household wheelie bin.

Reporting a commercial waste problem

If a business isn't disposing of its waste properly please report it to us.

We need to know:

the name and address of the business
what they are doing and when
whether there is a build up of waste, and the type of waste involved

Photos can help us with our enquiries - but don't take photos if you feel it isn't safe.

Report a commercial waste problem

Protecting your privacy - find out how we keep your information safe.

What we can do

We will investigate and talk to the business. We will find out what they are doing, and explain what action they need to take. If we can we will try and sort out the problem without taking further action.

Notices and prosecution

If necessary, we can serve a legal notice on the business responsible. If they don't take the action required in the notice we could take further legal action against them.

If they rent their property, they may be breaching their tenancy agreement.