It’s a legal requirement that anyone who collects waste and takes it away for disposal must be licenced and approved by the Environment Agency in England and Wales or the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in Scotland. Therefore, when you choose a skip hire company it is essential to ensure that they are an Approved Waste Carrier.
Disposing of waste materials in any unauthorised location (commonly referred to as ‘fly-tipping’) is illegal. Should you hire a skip from an unlicenced firm which subsequently dumps your waste material illegally you may be liable to prosecution and possibly face a fine of up to £5,000 or even a prison sentence.
There are a couple of ways in which you can check that your skip hire firm is an Approved Waste Carrier. Firstly, you can simply ask to see their waste carrier’s certificate. If this is not practical, ask your skip hire company for their unique waste carrier number; you can then call the Environment Agency on 03708 506506 to confirm that the skip hire company in question is a licenced Approved Waste Carrier.
An easy and foolproof way to find your nearest skip hire firm that is an Approved Waste Carrier is to use the Environment Agency’s online public register of waste carriers . All you have to do is enter your postcode and a search radius between 1 and 10 kilometres and the site will produce a list of all of the licensed waste carriers in your area.
Alternatively contact your local authority and ask for a list of all local Approved Waste Carriers.
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