What this means
The tyres leave. The responsibility does not. This page explains what the check on the front page actually establishes, and what it cannot.
What a waste carrier registration is
Anyone who transports waste produced by another business in England has to be registered with the Environment Agency as a waste carrier, broker or dealer. The registration is held by a legal entity, carries a number beginning CBD, and is published on a public register.
Registration is a legal minimum, not a mark of quality. Nobody inspects a yard before issuing one.
Upper tier and lower tier
A business that carries other people's controlled waste as a normal part of its trade needs upper tier registration. Upper tier runs for three years and has to be renewed, so it can expire quietly while collections carry on as usual.
Lower tier covers narrower cases, including a business carrying only its own waste. It does not expire the same way. A collector taking your tyres for money on only a lower tier registration is worth asking about.
Your duty of care as a garage
Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requires a business that produces controlled waste to take all measures reasonable in the circumstances to stop it escaping, and to hand it only to an authorised person. A registered carrier is an authorised person.
Handing the tyres over does not hand over the duty. If they are fly-tipped, the trail is followed back to the business that produced them, and the question asked is what checks that business made.
What paperwork records it
A waste transfer note records what the waste was, how much, who handed it over, who took it, when and where. Both sides keep a copy for at least two years. A note carrying the carrier's registration number is a record you can still stand behind a year later; one without a number is close to worthless.
What this tool checks
- Whether a business appears on the Environment Agency register.
- Which tier it holds, and the expiry date where one is published.
- The date our copy of the register was last synced.
What it does not check
- Whether the tyres reach a permitted site.
- Insurance, competence, pricing or conduct.
- Anything that changed at the Environment Agency since the last sync.
This is a description of what the legislation and the statutory code of practice say. It is not legal advice, and it does not cover every circumstance.