How to Fill In a Waste Transfer Note: Step-by-Step (2026)

You have a blank waste transfer note in front of you and need to fill it in correctly. Perhaps your waste carrier has just arrived and handed you a form, or you have downloaded a template and need to complete it before your next collection. Either way, every field matters. A waste transfer note (WTN) that is incomplete, inaccurate, or unsigned is not legally valid, and the consequences of getting it wrong range from a £300 fixed penalty notice to criminal prosecution with an unlimited fine.

This guide walks you through every section of a standard waste transfer note, box by box, explaining exactly what to write, why it is required, and where businesses most commonly go wrong. It is written for anyone completing a WTN in England or Wales under the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 (SI 1991/2839), as amended, and the statutory Duty of Care Code of Practice (2016).

If you are not yet familiar with what a waste transfer note is or when one is required, read our companion guide on what is a waste transfer note first. This article assumes you already know you need one and want practical help completing it.

Legal requirement: Every transfer of controlled waste between two parties in England and Wales must be accompanied by a waste transfer note, under Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991. Both parties must retain a copy for a minimum of two years.

Before You Start: What You Need

Before you pick up a pen or open a digital form, gather the following information. Trying to complete a WTN without these details to hand is the single biggest cause of incomplete or inaccurate notes.

About your business (the transferor):

Your full registered business name (as it appears at Companies House, not your trading name)
Your registered business address
The site address where the waste is being collected (if different from your registered address)
Your Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code — a 4 or 5-digit code describing your primary business activity, available from Companies House or the ONS SIC search tool
Your contact telephone number

About the waste:

A clear understanding of what the waste actually is — its physical form, main materials, and where it came from
The correct 6-digit EWC (European Waste Catalogue) code for the waste type
An estimate of the quantity in tonnes or cubic metres
The type and size of container the waste is in (skip, wheelie bin, loose in vehicle, etc.)

About the carrier or receiving site (the transferee):

The carrier's full registered business name
The carrier's registered business address
The carrier's waste carrier registration number (CBDU or CBDL prefix) — verify this on the Environment Agency public register before the transfer
If delivering directly to a treatment or disposal site: the site's environmental permit number or registered exemption reference

If you do not have the carrier's registration number, stop. Do not transfer waste to anyone whose registration you have not independently verified on the EA public register. For step-by-step instructions on checking this, see our guide to the EA waste carrier register search.

Warning: Never accept a carrier's verbal assurance that they are registered. Always verify the registration number on the Environment Agency's public register yourself. If you hand waste to an unregistered carrier and it is fly-tipped, you are liable under the duty of care regardless of what the carrier told you.

Section A: Describing the Waste

Section A of a waste transfer note captures what the waste is. This is the section that the Environment Agency scrutinises most closely during inspections, and it is the section most commonly completed inadequately. The Duty of Care Code of Practice (2016), paragraph 3.3, requires that the waste description be specific enough to identify the waste and allow it to be handled safely at every subsequent stage.

The written description: Describe the waste in plain English, but with enough detail that someone who has never seen it could understand what it is. Your description must convey:

Physical form: Is it solid, liquid, sludge, powder, or paste?
Main constituents: What materials make up the waste? List the principal components.
Source: What process or activity produced it? This is particularly important for industrial or construction waste.
Any relevant handling characteristics: Is it dusty, sharp-edged, odorous, or contaminated?

Examples of inadequate descriptions:

"General waste" — tells the receiving site nothing about what they are handling
"Mixed waste" — too vague to determine handling requirements
"Rubbish from site" — provides no information about composition or source
"Bits and pieces" — not a description in any meaningful sense

Examples of adequate descriptions:

"Mixed commercial waste comprising cardboard packaging, clear plastic shrink-wrap, polystyrene packing material, and food waste from a wholesale food distribution warehouse"
"Solid inert construction rubble comprising broken concrete blocks, brick fragments, and ceramic floor tiles from internal strip-out works at commercial office premises"
"Waste timber (untreated softwood offcuts and broken pallets) from a joinery workshop, no painted or treated wood"
"Office paper, shredded documents, and cardboard packaging from administrative offices of an accountancy practice"

The description and the EWC code (covered next) must be consistent with each other. If you describe "office paper and cardboard" but assign EWC code 17 09 04 (mixed construction and demolition waste), an enforcement officer will immediately identify the inconsistency. Either the description or the code is wrong, and either way the WTN is non-compliant.

Getting the EWC Code Right

Every WTN must include the applicable 6-digit European Waste Catalogue code. In the UK, following Brexit, the EWC is now formally referred to as the List of Wastes (LoW) in domestic legislation, but the codes themselves are identical. You will see both terms used interchangeably.

EWC codes are structured hierarchically: the first two digits identify the industry or process that generated the waste, the next two narrow it to a sub-category, and the final two identify the specific waste stream. For example:

20 03 01 — Mixed municipal waste (general commercial/household mixed waste)
20 01 01 — Paper and cardboard (from municipal-type waste)
17 09 04 — Mixed construction and demolition wastes (non-hazardous)
17 01 01 — Concrete (from construction/demolition)
17 02 01 — Wood (from construction/demolition)
15 01 01 — Paper and cardboard packaging
02 01 03 — Plant-tissue waste (from agriculture and food preparation)

How to select the correct code:

Identify the industry or process that produced the waste (this determines the first two digits)
Find the sub-category within that chapter that best matches your waste (next two digits)
Select the specific waste stream (final two digits)
If no specific code fits, look for a "wastes not otherwise specified" code within the relevant sub-category (these typically end in 99)

Critical point on hazardous codes: Some EWC codes exist in paired "mirror entries" — one hazardous (marked with an asterisk *) and one non-hazardous. For example, 17 09 03* is hazardous mixed construction waste and 17 09 04 is its non-hazardous counterpart. If your waste falls under a hazardous code, a standard WTN is not sufficient — you must use a hazardous waste consignment note under the Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005. If you are unsure, consult your waste contractor or the Environment Agency.

Best practice is to write both the code and the official List of Wastes description on the WTN, for example: "17 09 04 — Mixed construction and demolition wastes other than those mentioned in 17 09 01, 17 09 02 and 17 09 03". This removes any ambiguity about which code was intended.

For a detailed guide to selecting the correct code, including the most common codes for commercial and construction waste, see our article on EWC codes explained.

Key point: If a single transfer contains multiple distinct waste types — for example, a mixed skip containing both timber and concrete — each major waste type should ideally have its own EWC code listed on the WTN. Where this is impractical, use the code for the predominant waste type and ensure the written description captures the mixed nature of the load.

Quantity and Container Type

Quantity: The Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 require the quantity of waste to be stated on the WTN. Quantity must be expressed as:

Weight in kilograms or tonnes (strongly preferred — most receiving sites use weighbridges and will record the actual weight on arrival)
Volume in litres or cubic metres (acceptable for liquids, sludges, or where weighing at the point of collection is impractical)

Do not write "1 skip" or "3 bags" as the quantity. These tell the receiving site nothing about the actual amount of waste. Instead, write "approximately 4 tonnes" or "approximately 6 cubic metres". Where the exact weight is not available at the time of transfer, clearly label the figure as an estimate. If a weighbridge ticket is obtained at the receiving site, the actual weight should be recorded alongside the estimate.

Container type: Record the type and size of container holding the waste at the time of transfer. Common entries include:

Skip — 4 yard, 6 yard, 8 yard, 12 yard, 16 yard, or roll-on/roll-off
Wheeled bin — 240 litre, 660 litre, 1,100 litre
Bulk bags (also called dumpy bags or tonne bags)
Drums — specify capacity (e.g., 200-litre steel drum)
IBC (intermediate bulk container) — typically 1,000 litres
Loose/bulk — loaded directly into a flatbed, tipper, or grab lorry
Sealed sacks or rubble sacks
Compactor or baler

The container type helps verify plausibility. A WTN claiming 20 tonnes in a 4-yard skip is physically impossible and would attract immediate scrutiny. Similarly, stating "loose in vehicle" for liquid waste makes no sense. The container type, quantity, and waste description should all be internally consistent.

Section B: The Transferor (Who Is Giving the Waste)

The transferor is the person or business that currently holds the waste and is passing it to someone else. In most standard business waste collections, the transferor is the waste producer — the business whose operations generated the waste. However, if a carrier is delivering waste onward to a treatment facility, the carrier is the transferor in that second transaction.

What to write in the transferor section:

Full legal name: For a limited company, use the registered company name exactly as it appears at Companies House. "Smith Building Services Limited" rather than "Smith's Builders" or "SBS Ltd". For a sole trader, use your full legal name and trading name if different.
Registered address: The address at which the company is registered. If the site where the waste was produced is different from the registered address (which is common — a builder's registered office may be their home address while the waste is at a construction site), record both.
Site address: The address of the premises where the waste was produced, if different from the registered address. This is the collection address.
SIC code: Your Standard Industrial Classification code. This is a 4 or 5-digit code that describes your primary business activity. Examples: 41100 (development of building projects), 43120 (site preparation), 47110 (retail sale in non-specialised stores), 56101 (licensed restaurants), 69201 (accounting and auditing activities). You can find your SIC code on the Companies House register or at the ONS SIC search tool.
Contact telephone number: A number where the transferor can be reached if there are queries about the waste.
Legal status in relation to the waste: Record your capacity — typically "waste producer" for a business that generated the waste, or "waste holder" if you are holding waste produced by someone else. If you are a registered carrier transferring waste onward, record your carrier registration number here.

Warning: On multi-tenanted sites or shared premises, make sure the correct legal entity is named as transferor. The entity named must be the one that produced or holds the waste at the point of transfer. Using a parent company's name when a subsidiary produced the waste, or using a landlord's name when a tenant produced it, creates a non-compliant WTN.

Section C: The Transferee (Who Is Receiving the Waste)

The transferee is the person or business taking custody of the waste. For a standard collection, this is the waste carrier. For a direct delivery to a treatment or disposal site (where no separate carrier is involved), the transferee is the site operator.

What to write in the transferee section:

Full legal name and address: As with the transferor, the registered company name must be used, not a trading name. Record the registered business address.
Legal authority to receive the waste: This is the most important field in the transferee section. You must record the specific basis on which the transferee is authorised to take the waste. This will be one of the following:
- Waste carrier registration number (prefixed CBDU for upper tier or CBDL for lower tier) — this is required when the transferee is a carrier collecting waste for transport
- Environmental permit number — if the transferee is a site accepting waste for treatment, storage, or disposal under an environmental permit
- Registered exemption reference — if the transferee operates under a registered waste exemption (e.g., a T6 exemption for treating waste wood)
- Waste collection authority — if the local council is collecting the waste

Writing "licensed waste carrier" or "fully registered" in the legal authority field without including the actual registration number is not sufficient. The specific number must be recorded — it is the mechanism by which anyone reviewing the WTN can independently verify that the transferee was authorised at the time of the transfer.

Best practice — destination details: Where the transferee is a carrier who will transport the waste to a treatment or disposal site, recording the destination site's name, address, and environmental permit number on the WTN is strongly recommended. This is not strictly mandatory under the 1991 Regulations, but the Duty of Care Code of Practice (2016) encourages it, and in practice it is becoming an expected standard. Recording the destination evidences that you took reasonable steps to ensure your waste would reach an authorised facility, not just that you used an authorised carrier.

For further detail on the different tiers of carrier registration and what they mean, see our guide on upper tier vs lower tier waste carriers.

Section D: Transfer Details

Section D records the circumstances of the actual physical transfer — when, where, and how the waste changed hands.

Date of transfer: This must be the actual date the waste physically changed custody. Not the date the collection was booked, not the date the form was prepared, and certainly not a backdated or future date. For skip collections, this is typically the date the skip was lifted from site. For bin collections, it is the date the bins were emptied.

Time of transfer: Record the approximate time of transfer. For most collections, this will be the time the waste was loaded onto the carrier's vehicle. Recording the time provides an audit trail that can be cross-referenced against the carrier's vehicle tracking data, site CCTV, or access logs if any question about the transfer arises later.

Place of transfer: The address where the waste physically changed hands. This is normally the site address from which the waste was collected. If the collection point is not a standard address — for example, a roadside location or a field — record the address as precisely as possible, including a postcode or grid reference.

Vehicle registration number (recommended): Although not a mandatory field under the 1991 Regulations, recording the registration number of the vehicle that collected the waste is strongly recommended. If the waste is subsequently found fly-tipped or at an unauthorised site, the vehicle registration is a key piece of investigative evidence. It also allows cross-referencing with ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) data.

Destination of waste (recommended): Where the waste is being taken — the name and address of the treatment, recycling, or disposal facility. As noted in Section C, recording the destination demonstrates you took reasonable steps to ensure your waste was going to a lawful place, which is a key component of discharging your duty of care.

Key point: The Duty of Care Code of Practice (2016) states that the waste producer should satisfy themselves that the waste will be managed properly throughout the chain. Recording the final destination on the WTN, along with the destination's permit number, is the clearest way to evidence this.

Signatures and Declarations

Both the transferor and the transferee must sign the waste transfer note. The signature is not a formality — it is the legal mechanism by which each party confirms that the information on the WTN is accurate to the best of their knowledge and that the transfer has taken place.

Who can sign: The signature can be provided by the principal (the business owner, company director, or site manager) or by any authorised representative. An authorised representative is any employee or agent who has been given authority to sign WTNs on behalf of the business. There is no requirement for the signatory to hold a specific qualification or job title — a site foreman, office manager, or driver can sign, provided they have been authorised by the business to do so. Written authorisation is not legally required but is good practice, particularly for businesses with multiple staff who may handle waste collections.

What the signature confirms: By signing, each party declares that:

The information recorded on the WTN is accurate
The waste has been described correctly to the best of their knowledge
The transferor is entitled to transfer the waste
The transferee is authorised to receive it
The transfer has taken place (or, in the case of a season ticket, will take place) as described

Signature date: The date alongside each signature must be the date of the transfer. A signature dated the day after the transfer, or significantly later, undermines the evidential value of the WTN and may indicate that the note was completed retrospectively — which itself is a compliance concern.

Electronic signatures: Electronic signatures are fully valid for WTN purposes under the Electronic Communications Act 2000 and the Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/696). An electronic signature can take the form of a typed name in a signature field, a digitally drawn signature on a touchscreen, or a click-to-confirm mechanism. Digital platforms that record the signatory's identity, the timestamp, and device or IP address create a stronger audit trail than a handwritten signature on paper.

Warning: Do not allow the carrier's vehicle to leave your site without both signatures being completed. Once the waste has gone, obtaining a retrospective signature is difficult and creates its own compliance risk. An unsigned WTN is not a valid WTN — it is treated as if no WTN exists.

Common Mistakes When Filling In a WTN

Having walked through every section, here are the errors that the Environment Agency encounters most frequently during inspections. Avoid all of these:

Vague waste descriptions. "General waste", "mixed waste", and "rubbish" are not adequate descriptions. Be specific about what the waste is, what it is made of, and where it came from. The Duty of Care Code of Practice (2016) is clear on this point.
Wrong or missing EWC code. Every WTN must include the correct 6-digit EWC code. Using 20 03 01 (mixed municipal waste) as a catch-all for construction waste that should be coded 17 09 04 is a common error with serious consequences — the waste may end up at a facility not permitted to accept it.
Quantity stated as "1 skip" or "3 bags". Quantity must be in tonnes or cubic metres. An estimate is acceptable if clearly labelled as such, but "1 skip" is not a quantity.
Using a trading name instead of the registered company name. The legal entity must be identifiable. "Dave's Skips" tells an enforcement officer nothing — "D. Smith Skip Hire Limited (Company No. 12345678)" is what should appear.
Not checking or recording the carrier's registration number. Taking the carrier's word that they are registered is not sufficient. Verify the registration independently and record the specific CBDU or CBDL number on the WTN.
Missing signatures. Both parties must sign. An unsigned WTN is invalid, full stop.
Wrong date. The date must be the actual date of transfer — not the date the collection was booked, not the date the form was printed, and never a backdated date.
Inconsistency between the description and the EWC code. If the description says "timber offcuts" but the EWC code is for mixed municipal waste, the WTN is internally contradictory.
Not keeping your own copy. Both the transferor and transferee must independently retain a copy for at least two years. "The carrier has a copy" is not a defence — you must have your own.
Completing the WTN days after the transfer. The WTN should be completed at the point of transfer, not the following week. Retrospective completion undermines the reliability of the document and may constitute falsification.

For a more detailed analysis of each of these errors and how to avoid them, see our full guide on common mistakes on waste transfer notes.

The Digital Alternative

Everything described in this guide can be completed on paper, but there are compelling reasons to use a digital waste transfer note system instead. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the 1991 Regulations do not require paper — they require a "written" document, and digital records satisfy that requirement. The Environment Agency has confirmed that electronic WTNs are acceptable and that electronic signatures are valid.

A well-designed digital WTN platform addresses most of the common mistakes described above by design:

Mandatory field validation ensures no section can be left blank — you cannot submit an incomplete note
EWC code lookup tools help you find the correct 6-digit code without trawling through the full List of Wastes
Carrier registration fields prompt you to enter and verify the specific registration number
Electronic signatures from both parties are required before the note is finalised
Automatic timestamping records the exact date and time the note was completed, making backdating impossible
Cloud storage ensures both parties have instant access to their copy, with no risk of paper records being lost, damaged, or misfiled
Searchable archives allow you to retrieve any specific WTN in seconds during an EA inspection, rather than searching through filing cabinets

For businesses that make regular waste transfers — whether weekly bin collections or daily skip movements — the time savings alone are significant. But the real value is compliance confidence: a structured digital form makes it genuinely difficult to produce a non-compliant WTN.

For a detailed comparison of paper and digital approaches, see our guide on digital vs paper waste transfer notes. If you are interested in how the UK government's planned Digital Waste Tracking service will affect WTN requirements, see our article on DEFRA's digital waste tracking programme.

Create Your Free Waste Transfer Note Now

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Filling in a waste transfer note correctly is not complicated once you understand what each section requires. The key is preparation: gather your business details, the carrier's registration number, and a clear understanding of what the waste is before the carrier arrives. Complete the note at the point of transfer, ensure both parties sign, and retain your copy for at least two years. Do this consistently and you will have a robust paper trail that satisfies the duty of care and protects your business if anything goes wrong downstream.

For the definitive overview of the WTN framework, including the legal basis, penalties, and record-keeping obligations, see our guide on what is a waste transfer note. For a field-by-field breakdown of every mandatory and recommended field on a WTN template, see waste transfer note template UK.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific legal guidance, consult a qualified environmental law solicitor.