Start your waste transfer note file

Every time controlled waste leaves your premises, a waste transfer note (or, for anything hazardous, a consignment note) has to be completed and kept — it records what the waste was, how much, who took it and where it went. Your contractor will usually generate these automatically, either on paper or through an online portal, but you need a system for filing and finding them, not just an inbox they land in.

This is your paper trail proving you handled waste responsibly. If an Environment Agency or SEPA officer, or your council, asks to see transfer notes for the last two years and you can't produce them, that alone is an offence — separate from whatever happened to the waste itself.

Watch out for

• Letting notes sit unfiled in an email inbox — when an officer asks for two years of records you need to produce them quickly, not go searching.
• Only filing notes for general waste and forgetting oil, glass or any hazardous stream — every controlled waste transfer needs its own note.
• Throwing records away after a year because that "feels long enough" — the minimum is two years for ordinary waste, three for hazardous.

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
• Glass collection
• Used cooking oil collection
• Waste contract review and transfer-note file— this becomes an ongoing job once you’re open →