Reference

UK waste compliance glossary

31 terms you will meet on waste paperwork, defined without the statutory throat-clearing. Where a rule differs between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the entry says so.

A B C D E H L M P R S U W

A

Absolute entry: A List of Wastes entry whose hazardous status is fixed by the entry itself — no assessment needed. The opposite of a mirror entry, where the status depends on what the waste actually contains.See also: Mirror entry, EWC code
Annex IV: The schedule of the POPs Regulation setting concentration limits for persistent organic pollutants. Waste containing a regulated POP above its Annex IV limit is hazardous and must be declared with its concentration.See also: POP, HP POP

B

Broker: A business that arranges for waste to be moved or handled by others without taking possession of it. Brokers must be registered with the relevant regulator in the same way carriers are.See also: Carrier registration, Dealer

C

Carrier registration: Regulator registration required to transport waste as a business. Upper tier is chargeable and renews on a cycle; lower tier is free. Fees and number prefixes differ by nation.See also: Upper tier, Broker
Consignee returnalso: consignee returns: The report a receiving site sends its regulator confirming a hazardous or special waste load arrived and what was done with it. Timing differs sharply by nation — quarterly in England and Wales, immediate in Scotland, within one day in Northern Ireland.See also: Consignment note, Receiving site
Consignment code: The unique reference on a hazardous or special waste consignment note. In England and Wales the producer generates it; in Scotland and Northern Ireland the regulator issues it, with its own prefixes.See also: Consignment note
Consignment noteHWCN, or SWCN in Scotland: The document that must accompany hazardous waste — special waste in Scotland. It carries more than a transfer note does, including hazard property codes and the consignment code, and is kept for three years.See also: HP code, Waste transfer note, Special waste
Container type code: The three-letter code DEFRA's digital waste tracking service uses for how waste was contained — SKI for a skip, ROR for roll-on/roll-off, IBC for an IBC. The service takes the code, not free text.

D

D codedisposal code: A code recording a disposal operation performed on waste at its destination, D1 to D15. D1 is landfill; D10 is incineration on land.See also: R code
Dealer: A business that buys and sells waste on its own account. Registered alongside carriers and brokers — the combined register is often written CBD.See also: Broker, Carrier registration
Digital waste trackingDWT, or the Waste Tracking Service: DEFRA's service for recording waste movements electronically, replacing paper-based records. Mandatory from October 2026.See also: Waste transfer note
Duty of care: The statutory obligation on everyone who produces, carries, or receives waste to handle it properly and to document each transfer. It is the reason a transfer note exists at all.See also: Waste transfer note

E

Environment AgencyEA: The waste regulator for England. The equivalents are Natural Resources Wales, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
EWC codeEuropean Waste Catalogue code; also List of Wastes code: The six-digit code identifying what a waste actually is. Every transfer note and consignment note carries one. An asterisk on the published list marks a hazardous entry.See also: Absolute entry, Mirror entry, List of Wastes

H

Hazardous waste: Waste that is harmful to human health or the environment, identified either by an absolute List of Wastes entry or by assessment of a mirror entry. It moves on a consignment note, not a transfer note. Scotland calls it special waste.See also: Special waste, HP code, Consignment note
HP codehazardous property code: A code recording why a waste is hazardous — what it will do. HP 1 to HP 15, plus HP POP for persistent organic pollutants above their limits.See also: WM3, HP POP
HP POP: The hazard property applying to waste that contains regulated persistent organic pollutants above the concentration limits in Annex IV of the POPs Regulation.See also: POP, Annex IV

L

List of Wastes: The statutory catalogue of EWC codes. Each nation enacts it separately — the England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland instruments are different statutes covering the same list.See also: EWC code

M

Mirror entry: A pair of List of Wastes entries, one hazardous and one not, covering the same waste type. Which applies depends on a WM3 assessment of the substances actually present.See also: Absolute entry, WM3

P

POPpersistent organic pollutant: A chemical that resists degradation and accumulates in the food chain. DEFRA publishes a code for each one declarable on a waste movement — a chemical name sent in the code field is rejected.See also: Annex IV, HP POP
Pre-notification: Telling the regulator a hazardous movement is coming before it happens. Not required within England or Wales; required into Scotland and in Northern Ireland, with different windows.See also: Consignment note
Producer: The business whose activity created the waste. The producer carries the classification duty — deciding the EWC code and, for a mirror entry, whether it is hazardous.See also: Duty of care, Mirror entry

R

R coderecovery code: A code recording a recovery operation performed on waste at its destination, R1 to R13. R1 is energy recovery; R3 covers recycling of organic material including composting.See also: D code
Receiving site: The permitted site a load is delivered to — a transfer station, treatment plant, recycling facility or landfill. Under digital waste tracking the receiving site confirms what actually arrived.See also: Consignee return

S

Season ticket: A single transfer note covering repeated collections of the same waste from the same place, instead of one note per visit. Valid for up to twelve months.See also: Waste transfer note
SIC codeStandard Industrial Classification code: The code describing the producer's business activity. Required on transfer notes across all four nations under SIC 2007; Wales also accepts SIC 2003 on a consignment note.
Special waste: Scotland's term for hazardous waste. It moves on a Special Waste Consignment Note with a SEPA-issued code, and the consignee reports receipt immediately.See also: Hazardous waste, Consignment note

U

Upper tier: The chargeable level of carrier, broker and dealer registration, required where waste handling is a core part of the business. Lower tier is free and covers a narrower set of activities.See also: Carrier registration

W

Waste hierarchy: The ranked order for handling waste — prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery, then disposal. England, Wales and Northern Ireland require a declaration on the transfer note that it has been applied; Scotland imposes a segregation duty instead.
Waste transfer noteWTN: The document recording a transfer of non-hazardous waste between two parties. It must be kept for two years. Hazardous waste needs a consignment note instead.See also: Duty of care, Consignment note, Season ticket
WM3: The joint regulator guidance on classifying and assessing waste. It is what determines whether a mirror entry is hazardous and which hazard properties apply, based on the substances present and their concentrations.See also: Mirror entry, HP code

Need the codes themselves?

Every list referenced above is published in full — EWC, disposal and recovery, hazard properties, POPs and container types.

Browse all UK waste codes →