No. If the garden waste is yours and you are taking it yourself, in your own car, to a household recycling centre or your council's garden waste collection, you do not need a waste carrier licence. Registration applies to businesses that carry waste, not to householders dealing with their own. What you do have is a duty of care: if you pay anybody else to take your garden waste away, you are legally required to take reasonable steps to check that they are authorised to carry it. Get that wrong and the penalty falls on you, not just on them.
This guide is general information, not legal advice.
The householder position
Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 puts a duty of care on householders in respect of the waste their property produces. In plain terms you must take all reasonable measures available to you to make sure your waste is only passed to an authorised person. An authorised person includes a registered waste carrier and a site that holds a permit, such as a household recycling centre or a licensed transfer station.
Moving your own waste yourself is not the problem. Handing it to someone else without checking is. Brambles, hedge cuttings, turf, tree branches, old fence panels and a dismantled shed are all waste once you have decided to get rid of them.
When a licence is actually needed
A business needs to be registered with the Environment Agency if it transports waste, or if it arranges for waste to be bought, sold or disposed of. That covers a clearance firm or a man with a van, a gardener or landscaper loading your cuttings at the end of a job, a tree surgeon removing brash and chippings, a skip company, and the handyman who offers to run it to the tip for cash.
If a gardener cuts everything and leaves it bagged on your drive for you to deal with, they are not carrying it and do not need to be registered for that job. The moment it goes in their vehicle, they do.
Lower tier and upper tier
There are two levels of registration in England, and the difference matters when you are checking somebody.
| Who it covers | Cost and renewal | |
|---|---|---|
| Lower tier | Businesses carrying only waste they produced themselves in the course of their own work, as long as it is not construction or demolition waste. Also charities, voluntary organisations and councils. | Free, and it does not expire |
| Upper tier | Anybody carrying other people's waste, anybody carrying construction or demolition waste even if they produced it, and any broker or dealer | Chargeable, and must be renewed every three years |
A gardener who takes away green waste they cut themselves can sit in the lower tier. A firm you have hired to clear your garden and remove the contents is carrying waste that was yours, and should hold upper tier registration. If the job involves a shed base, rubble, hardcore or fencing, that is construction and demolition waste and upper tier applies regardless.
GOV.UK currently shows the fee for a new upper tier registration as £191.02, with a renewal of £130.25 every three years. Lower tier registration is free. Nobody legitimate is priced out of registering, which is why the absence of a number tells you something.
How to check a carrier, step by step
The check takes about two minutes and you can do it while they are still standing on your drive.
- Ask for the waste carrier registration number. In England it begins with the letters CB. Honest firms give it without hesitation, and it is often on the van, the invoice or the website.
- Open the Environment Agency public register. Go to environment.data.gov.uk/public-register and choose waste carriers, brokers and dealers.
- Search by the registration number, or by business name, or by postcode with a distance radius if you only have a trading name.
- Check the tier. For someone taking your waste away, you want upper tier. Lower tier means they are registered only to carry their own.
- Check the name and address match the business you are dealing with, and check the expiry date on an upper tier entry.
- Record the check. A screenshot, or a note of the number and the date, is your evidence.
If nothing comes up, do not hand over the waste. Take it to a household recycling centre yourself, use the council's garden waste service, or find someone who is registered.
Waste transfer notes and what to keep
A waste transfer note is the written record that goes with waste when it changes hands between businesses. It describes the waste, says who handed it over, who took it and where it went. Businesses on both sides of the transfer must keep a copy for two years from the date of the transfer and produce it if an officer from the Environment Agency or the council asks.
As a householder you are not legally required to hold a transfer note, but keeping something in writing is how you demonstrate that you met your duty of care: a receipt or invoice showing the business name, address and registration number, a note of the van registration, and your dated record of the register check. Any established clearance firm will provide a receipt as a matter of routine. If someone will not put anything in writing, that is your answer.
What it costs to get it wrong
A householder who breaches the duty of care can be given a fixed penalty by the council. Government guidance sets the maximum full penalty at £600, with a default of £200 where a council has not set its own level, a minimum of £150, and a minimum of £120 for early payment. Many councils now use the top of that range. A council can prosecute instead, in which case the figures are higher. It is no defence that the price was cheap or that it was "only green waste". Our guide on fly-tipping and cheap garden clearance covers what happens when waste is traced back to an address.
The system is being reformed
Defra has confirmed that the two-tier registration system in England will be replaced by environmental permits, with carriers reclassified as waste transporters, waste controllers or both. Draft regulations have been laid before Parliament. Until that takes effect, the CB number remains the thing to check, and your duty of care does not change either way.
What we ask of clearance firms
We are an introducer. We pass your enquiry to one local specialist who covers your area. Before a firm receives a single enquiry from us we ask for their waste carrier registration number and their public liability insurance, and we record both with the expiry date. A firm whose cover lapses stops receiving enquiries until it is renewed. See how we check the firms we work with.
That is a check on our side, not a substitute for yours. Ask for the number on the day and keep the receipt.
- Green waste removal if the cutting is already done
- Garden clearance and overgrown garden clearance
- Shed removal, which usually creates mixed waste rather than green waste
- Garden clearance cost guide for what the removal is worth
Our price card puts a green waste collection at £80 for a car boot's worth up to £330 for a full van, and a light garden clearance at £220 to £320 with waste included. Legal disposal is built into every one of those figures. To deal with it yourself, see nearest tip in the West Midlands and Birmingham garden waste collection.
Questions
Do I need a licence to take my own garden waste to the tip?
No. Householders moving waste produced at their own home do not need to register. Take proof of address if your recycling centre asks for it, and check your council's rules on van and trailer use, because many sites restrict commercial-looking vehicles or require a permit.
Does my gardener need to be registered?
If they take your cuttings away in their vehicle, yes. If they only carry waste they produced themselves during their own work and it is not construction or demolition waste, lower tier registration is enough. If they are removing waste that was already yours, or anything from a shed base or fencing, they should be upper tier.
What does a CB number look like and can I trust a certificate?
Registration numbers in England start with CB followed by a string of characters. A paper or PDF certificate is a reasonable starting point, but check the number itself on the Environment Agency public register, because certificates can be expired, edited or borrowed from another business.
Can I be fined if I paid in good faith?
You can. The offence is failing to take reasonable steps to check, so what protects you is evidence that you checked: the registration number, the register search, the receipt. If waste you paid to have removed turns up fly-tipped, contact the council yourself and show them what you did.