Whilst the Waste regs do not provide a definition of a waste producer this may (or may not) help - taken from the Env Protection Act 1990 (Section 34) Duty of Care ACOP: A.14 Waste holders can be responsible only for waste which is at some time under their control. It is not a breach of the duty to fail to take steps to prevent someone else from mishandling any other waste. However, a holder's responsibility for waste which he at any stage controls extends to what happens to it at other times, insofar as he knows or might reasonably foresee. and; B.2 The duty of care applies to a person who "produces" waste. Section 34 of the 1990 Act does not define this term. However, in relation to the definition of waste, regulation 1(3) of the 1994 Regulations provides that "'producer' means anyone whose activities produce [Directive] waste or who carries out preprocessing, mixing or other operations resulting in a change in its nature or composition". This definition is also reflected in paragraph 88 of Schedule 22 of the Environment Act 1995. So I guess the question is do you at any point control their waste? If not I think the DoC falls to the Contractors to manage the waste. As the waste producer they are still obliged to issue a WTN and follow the waste cradle to grave. If they are adamant they are the producer why can’t they simply give you a copy of their WTN so that you have documented your due diligence in the event this arrangement was ever questioned? Alan

I believe generally in construction principal contractors are deemed as producers of the waste and not the client. So they in theory do not have to issues WTNs to the client or their agents. So if they are producing it and removing it from site no WTN is required. However the waste, even after recycling, must be going somewhere and at some time in the disposal process they would a WTN produced. It is not uncommon for the waste on small works to be removed back to a yard, processed and then placed with other waste from similar works in large skips for disposal. They should be a paper trail of transfer/disposal and what you are asking is good practice. I cannot or see a reason why they would not give you a copy of WTNs or at least explain what is happening to the waste.

Fully with Nick - if you did not put he requirement for copies of WTN in the contract you have no right to demand and vice versa. As long as the contractor has his own licensed transfer and sorting station receiving from many sites you will find a specific wtn for your stream an impossibility. If he uses somebody else's site then a WTN will be generated for each load.