Waste contract review and transfer-note file

A yearly check on two things at once: whether your waste contract still fits how you trade (bin sizes, streams collected, collection frequency, price against the market), and whether your waste transfer note file is complete and easy to produce on demand. This is a fixed annual date on the calendar, not something that just drifts along from whenever you last thought about it.

Contracts silently drift out of shape as trade changes — bins sized for opening week, streams that were optional when you signed but are now mandatory, or prices that crept up without you noticing. Separately, an Environment Agency or SEPA officer, or your council, can ask for two years of transfer notes at any time, and gaps in that file are an offence on their own, regardless of what actually happened to the waste.

Watch out for

• Letting the review lapse because the contract auto-renews quietly — auto-renewal is exactly why you need a fixed date to actually look at it, not a reason to skip the review.
• Reviewing the price but not the transfer note file, so a contract renegotiation happens while six months of notes are missing underneath it.
• Assuming the carrier's registration from last year still stands — check it is still current on the Environment Agency or SEPA register each time you review.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Managing your waste: an overview checked 2026-09-02
• GOV.UK — How to classify different types of waste checked 2026-09-02

See also

• Set up general waste and recycling— this becomes part of getting open →
• Start your waste transfer note file— this becomes part of getting open →