How to check legitimate waste carriers licence

What is a waste carrier licence?

A waste carrier licence is an annual membership program specifically for waste disposal and waste management. The initiative was setup by the governing body, the Environmental Agency.

An array of businesses require waste carrier licences in order to be compliant for the disposal of commercial materials. These include various industries including builders, contractors, gardeners and plumbers.

Depending on the individual companies registration membership tier, registered and licenced waste carriers can legally dispose of various types of waste including:

Fly tipping has become a costly issue to tackle for the United Kingdom as costs reach an estimated £86m to £186 million per year. Vast quantities of waste is left at the roadsides or illegally dumped in rivers. These tend to be DIY renovating homeowners or commercial companies that cannot legally remove commercial waste.

How to check waste certificates

If you are unsure whether the company has a valid waste certificate, it is strongly recommended to verify the companies waste certificate before any work commences.

Every licenced waste carrier has an assigned licence number that can be used inside a search on the Environment Agency’s search waste carriers directory. If you do not have the waste licence registration number, searching for the business name or their commercial trading name is a useful alternative.

Environmental Agency Widget

The environmental agency have recently released widgets that can be embedded onto a website to display a members registration details. such as Ideal Response’s (under the trading name IRG LTD) as shown below.

Although these are perfectly valid and show real-time, valid information being pulled from the the Environment Agency’s API. It is always best to verify the legitimacy of these widgets or ask for proof as fakes have been known to emerge in the waste disposal industry.

Spot the Difference: Real vs Fake

These types of widgets could easily be replicated and adjusted into an image (rather than a real-time widget). As a result, this would mean their licence could have expired or be fraudulent from the beginning.

Looking at the two different waste carrier licences shown above, the first depicts Ideal Response’s (IRG LTD) genuine waste carrier licence. Whereas the latter showcases a fake replica by the Business name of FAKE BIZ, registration number being FAKE9999999, company number as 12345678 and an expiry date in the year 2099.

With exception to a slight distortion in the typography, the two licences are almost identical. For a novice user, telling the difference between what may be real and what is fake can be difficult. Especially if you aren’t familiar with any of the governing bodies regarding waste disposal.

The Difference

Although the appearance of these two registration certificates is extremely similar, the difference between the two can be noticed when you interact with each of them.

Try to hover over (desktop) or click on any of the hyperlinks outlined by blue underlined text. You will be able to notice the real widget is interactive, whereas the fake you cannot.

By cross-referencing all waste carrier information on the Environment Agency’s website, you will ensure that the any registration details will be double checked, accurate and up to date.

Licenced waste carriers

When looking for a contractor to carry out works to your home or property, be vigilant to check if they are a licenced waste carrier; as waste is likely to be disposed of after works are carried out. Hiring a licenced waste carrier could mean you save on costs due to not requiring skips to be hired for on-going periods of time.

Ideal Response are an upper-tier licenced waste carrier meaning we can handle all disposing all types of waste. Ensure your waste is disposed of legally by hiring a certified waste disposal company. For more information about disposing of bulky items, visit our fly tipping removal services.