Finish with four decisions for one workplace: the priority waste stream, one prevention action, the person responsible, and the review dates. Choose the stream from 4–8 weeks of weights or volumes on invoices and transfer notes. Count each collection once, and compare streams over the same baseline dates and coverage, using compatible units. That 4–8 weeks is the workflow on this page. It is a recommended baseline, and it is not a statutory audit length.

Choose the stream you can compare

Phase 1: collect a 4–8 week record

Collect invoices and transfer notes for one baseline. The baseline is a start date, an end date, and the workplaces or activities those dates cover. Choose a window of 4–8 weeks. Collections inside that window can cover different numbers of days.

Count each collection once. An invoice, a waste transfer note and a line on an invoice summary can all describe the same collection. Match them by date, stream and collector, and keep one quantity. Do not add the invoice to the transfer note, or a summary line to the entries it already includes.

If a document also covers dates outside the window, or repeats a collection you have already counted, leave that extra quantity out. Use a smaller figure only when the document itself states the quantity for the days inside the window. Do not divide a total by days to create that split.

Use a measured weight or volume when the document states one for that stream. Label an estimate, and keep it out of the measured total. A charge for a bin of a stated size is a billing allowance. Multiplying that capacity by the number of collections gives the space that was available. It does not give the volume of waste that was collected. When you have two quotes for that stream, compare collection quotes for one site without treating a missing fee as zero.

Keep the stream name and the unit printed on the document. A mixed total stays a mixed total. Add kilograms to kilograms, and litres to litres. Do not convert one into the other for this comparison.

A seven-day starter log is a different record. You can record a seven-day starter waste log. The seven-day log does not replace this longer record. Use it to see what you can measure directly in one week. Keep the 4–8 week invoices and transfer notes before you treat a figure as this programme’s baseline. Keep customer rights apart from a returns waste route.

The GOV.UK page on disposing of business waste says a business should keep waste to a minimum by preventing, reusing, recycling or recovering it, in that order. That page does not set a sampling duration. It points to separate guidance for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The waste transfer notes section says each load needs a waste transfer note, or a document with the same information, such as an invoice. For this workflow, use a quantity only when that document states the stream and the unit, and only after you have reconciled it with any other document for the same collection.

That section also says a season ticket can cover repeated transfers of the same non-hazardous waste for up to a year, with a schedule of each collection. Use a schedule quantity only when the stream and the unit are stated, and count each collection once. The two-year retention rule below is the England and Wales rule. Scotland’s current code has its own two-year instruction. This page does not restate a retention period for Northern Ireland.

Pick one priority stream

Add the measured quantities for one stream across the baseline. Compare streams only when they cover the same dates and the same workplaces, and use a compatible unit.

Leave out a quantity that falls outside the window, overlaps a collection already counted, or uses a different unit. A count of bin lifts is not a weight. Bin capacity multiplied by collections is not measured waste volume. If only one stream has a usable measured total, that stream is the priority for this round. Say which streams could not be compared, and whether the gap is the unit, an estimate, a billing allowance, a repeated document, or dates outside the window.

The largest comparable measured total is the priority stream. It is the place to aim the prevention action. It is not proof that every other stream is smaller, because an unmeasured stream has no total.

Choose one prevention action

Prevention means not creating the waste. For the priority stream, write one change that stops some of that waste being produced. Ordering less of a perishable item, or stopping a process step that creates offcuts, is that kind of change. An extra recycling bin is a later step: it moves waste that has already been created. The location plan does not replace the prevention action. You can plan office bin locations and staff instructions.

Write the action as a plan. It is not a measured saving, and it does not say what a mixed bin contains unless you sorted that bin and recorded the sort.

Name a person and a review

Name one role or person who will collect the next record. Set the review over a later window for the same stream, the same unit and the same kind of coverage. Note any difference in operating days, closures, output or workload between the two windows. Two windows of equal length do not, by themselves, show that the prevention action caused a lower total.

Compare those two measured totals and leave every other figure out of that comparison.

A lower later total is the result of that comparison. On its own, it is not a public environmental claim, and it is not evidence that the business spent less. Collection is a paid service. Defra’s workplace recycling guidance says businesses continue to pay for their own waste services, and that collectors typically have contract terms allowing them to refuse a heavily contaminated load or to charge more because they then have to treat it as non-recyclable. Those are reasons to keep streams identifiable. The inspection uses the collector’s own rules. You can inspect one bin against the collector’s acceptance rules. They are not a promise that a change will cost less.

A fictional cafe

The cafe in this example is fictional. The invoices below were written to show the comparison. They are not records from a business, and they are not observed savings.

Over six weeks, which sits inside the 4–8 week workflow, the fictional invoices say:

Stream on the document What the invoices say Use it in the comparison?
Food waste 18 + 16 + 21 + 19 + 17 + 20 kg Yes. The total is 111 kg.
Card 8 + 9 + 7 + 11 + 6 + 8 kg over the same six weeks Yes. The total is 49 kg.
Residual waste One 1,100-litre bin each week, six times, with no weight No. That is bin capacity, not a measured kilogram total.

Food waste is the priority because 111 kg is the larger kilogram total. Card stays in the records at 49 kg. Residual waste stays outside that comparison. Six collections of a 1,100-litre bin record the capacity that was available, not a measured volume of waste. Recording that residual waste in litres would still not put it beside the food-waste kilograms. A later residual record can be compared only with another residual record that uses the same unit.

The fictional prevention action is to stop starting a fresh batch of soup after 14:00 on weekdays. The kitchen lead is the responsible role. The review is the next six weeks of food-waste invoice kilograms, with a note of any change in opening days or covers. The example stops before that review. It has no second total, no percentage change and no cost figure.

Write the four decisions

When your own documents are in front of you, write:

  1. The workplace, the baseline start and end dates, and the sites or activities those dates cover.
  2. The priority stream, the unit, the measured total, and the streams you could not compare.
  3. One prevention action, written as a plan.
  4. The responsible person, and the start and end dates of the review, using the same stream, unit and coverage. Note any difference in operating days or workload.

That is the end of this workflow. Publishing the comparison is a separate decision. Read the green claims guidance before you describe a reduction in public.

England: the rules that sit beside the record

The steps above are a working method. They can be used wherever the invoices and transfer notes exist. The duties in this section are England’s, except where the text names England and Wales. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own pages, linked below.

The hierarchy, when waste is transferred

In England and Wales, regulation 12 of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 says that an establishment or undertaking which imports, produces, collects, transports, recovers or disposes of waste, or which as a dealer or broker has control of waste, must, on the transfer of waste, take all measures available to it that are reasonable in the circumstances to apply this order:

  1. Prevention.
  2. Preparing for re-use.
  3. Recycling.
  4. Other recovery, for example energy recovery.
  5. Disposal.

The same regulation allows a departure from that order where life-cycle thinking on the overall impacts shows it achieves the best overall environmental outcome. The considerations include technical feasibility and economic viability. Defra’s 2011 hierarchy guidance says you need to be able to justify a decision that departs from the order, and that keeping a record of such a decision is good practice. Regulation 35 requires the written transfer information to confirm that the transferor has discharged the regulation 12 duty. That confirmation sits on the transfer record. It is not a separate audit of the 4–8 week baseline.

What to separate in England

From 31 March 2025, Defra’s workplace recycling guidance says workplaces in England must separate waste before collection, including waste from employees, customers and visitors:

  • dry recyclable materials: plastic, metal, glass, paper and card
  • food waste
  • non-recyclable waste, also called residual waste

The guidance says to separate dry recyclables as the collector instructs. The legal arrangement is in sections 45AZA and 45AZB of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The person who presents the waste must present it separated in accordance with the collection arrangements. Food waste is its own stream and is not collected together with glass, metal, plastic, or paper and card.

The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025 allow any combination of metal, glass and plastic to be collected together. They do not give paper and card that same blanket permission. Defra’s written-assessment guidance tells collectors in England to collect paper and card separately from plastic, metal and glass unless separate collection is not technically practicable, not economically practicable, or has no significant environmental benefit. Where a collector relies on one of those reasons, the guidance says the collector must prepare a written assessment. That assessment is the collector’s document. Ask which containers the collector will take, including whether paper and card travel separately.

Food waste is in scope however little the workplace produces, including workplaces that do not serve food. The guidance says you should not ask staff to take food waste home. Packaging labelled compostable or biodegradable is not recycled with food waste; the guidance says to treat it as non-recyclable waste or to arrange a dedicated collection. Caddy liners, including compostable liners, can be collected with food waste. If a food-waste weight includes liners, say so when you record the stream, so the next period is measured the same way.

The guidance’s list of workplaces includes offices, retail and hospitality, and it says the list is not complete. Waste similar in nature and composition to household waste is the scope described there.

Micro-firms and the 31 March 2025 headcount

Regulation 4 of the 2025 regulations says sections 45AZA and 45AZB do not apply to collection arrangements for a micro-firm until 31 March 2027. A business is a micro-firm if, at the time the regulations came into force, its full-time equivalent employees were fewer than 10. The regulations came into force on 31 March 2025. The count is for the business, not for one site. If the headcount has changed since 31 March 2025, use that commencement date in regulation 4 rather than a later staff list.

Add the number of full-time employees to a fraction for each other employee. For that employee, take the hours worked over the previous twelve weeks, divide by the number of weeks in which they worked at least one hour, and use that result as a proportion of a full-time employee’s contracted weekly hours. Defra’s workplace guidance says volunteers, contractors and self-employed workers do not count, and that three sites with five employees each are 15 employees and not a micro-firm. The guidance says you do not need to register or apply for the exemption.

Defra’s guidance says that if you do not comply by 31 March 2025, or by 31 March 2027 for a micro-firm, you risk a compliance notice from the Environment Agency, and that failing to comply with a compliance notice is an offence. Where a landlord or a facilities company presents the waste, the guidance says a notice can also be issued to that presenter.

Carriers and transfer records

Defra’s workplace guidance says you must make sure the collector is on the public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers. For a collection in England, search the Environment Agency register. That register page says carriers and brokers registered with SEPA or Natural Resources Wales are also authorised to operate in England.

Natural Resources Wales says a registration with Natural Resources Wales, the Environment Agency or SEPA is valid in Wales, England and Scotland, and that the carrier can tell you where they are registered. Use Natural Resources Wales’ check page for a Wales registration and SEPA’s transporting-waste page for Scotland, which links to SEPA’s public register. Northern Ireland is outside that three-nation statement. Use DAERA’s carrier registers.

In England and Wales, regulation 35 of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 requires the transferor and the transferee to keep the written waste information, or a copy, for at least two years, and to produce it to the appropriate body or a waste collection authority within seven days if asked. The written information has to identify the waste, state the quantity, and include the other particulars in that regulation. Hazardous waste uses consignment notes and sits outside this workflow.

The GOV.UK waste-transfer section says to keep a paper or electronic copy for two years, and to keep a season ticket and its schedule for two years after the last transfer. Read that section with the England and Wales regulation. It is the GOV.UK instruction, and the parent page signposts Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for their own arrangements.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Use the page for the nation where the waste arises. England’s separation list, micro-firm date and paper-and-card assessment are not restated here as duties in the other nations.

Scotland. The Scottish Government duty of care code is dated 24 March 2026, applies in Scotland only, and says it replaces all previous Scottish versions. The producer section tells a waste producer to apply the waste hierarchy, to present glass, metal, plastic, paper and card for separate collection, including plastic film from 31 March 2027, to present food waste for separate collection in some circumstances, to complete a waste transfer note and keep a copy for two years, and to transfer waste only to an authorised person, such as a transporter registered with SEPA. The code says SEPA enforces the duty of care.

Wales. The Welsh Government workplace recycling page says workplaces must separate food waste, paper and card, glass, metals, plastic and cartons, and unsold textiles. Whether the food-waste duty applies to a premises is set out in the code of practice. Paper and card can share a container. Metal, plastic and cartons can share a container. From 6 April 2026 the workplace page and that code describe separation of small waste electrical items beyond unsold items. The workplace page describes those items as anything with a plug, battery or cable that measures 50 cm or less on every side.

Northern Ireland. DAERA’s waste legislation note summarises the duty of care in the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and the duty-of-care regulations: take reasonable measures to prevent escape, transfer waste only to an authorised person, and accompany it with an adequate description. The same page says holders and transporters must carry, produce and retain waste transfer notes. This page does not restate a retention period for Northern Ireland. Carrier registration is on DAERA’s register page.

Limits

This page does not calculate a landfill-diversion percentage. Comparing two totals needs the same stream, the same unit, and the same baseline dates and coverage. Equal length alone does not show that a prevention action caused the change. A single percentage would also need a definition of the whole waste total and of which destinations count as diverted. In the hierarchy, energy recovery is “other recovery”, and landfill is disposal. This workflow leaves those destinations as labels on the transfer record rather than folding them into one rate.

This page does not use a percentage threshold, or the label “zero waste”, as a target. A public claim about a reduction needs a stated method. The green claims guidance is the next page for that decision.

Hazardous waste uses its own consignment notes. Clinical waste and confidential-waste collections use their own handling arrangements. This workflow does not set those routes. Packaging producer responsibility is a different question. The Plastic Packaging Tax guide is the page for that tax. The circular economy guide is the wider context for prevention and reuse. Neither of those pages completes the four decisions above.

The four decisions are an operational plan for one workplace. They are not a compliance opinion on a particular site, contract or nation.

Sources

Accessed 7 October 2026.