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Waste management for rural businesses

Businesses in British urban areas have numerous options for commercial waste collection, but choices in rural locations are often severely limited. While local councils are required to collect waste from even the most remote homes, they are not obligated to provide this service to businesses.

In this guide, our waste experts summarise the best practices and available options for rural waste management. Here’s what we cover:

Waste solutions for rural businesses
Waste hierarchy for rural businesses
Regulations for rural waste management

Waste solutions for rural businesses

Waste generation is inevitable for most rural businesses. In this section, we summarise the three most popular options for waste disposal: collection services, waste transfer stations, and on-site waste solutions.

Collection services

Most businesses in the UK rely on private commercial waste collection providers for regular waste and recycling services.

However, finding a reliable collection provider in rural areas can be challenging, as many providers only offer regular collections in major towns and cities.

We recommend considering national waste providers such as Veolia or Biffa, which have near-universal coverage across the UK.

Alternatively, you could contact the waste team at your local council. Local councils must provide waste collections to all households within their region and typically have regular collection routes covering rural locations.

Many local councils also offer a paid-for commercial waste collection service for businesses and can provide tailored quotes for your waste collection needs.

If you would like to discuss your options with an independent waste expert, please enter a few details on our form to request a callback.

Waste transfer stations

Without local collection services, rural businesses can transport their waste to a nearby waste transfer station. To do so, you must apply for a low-tier waste carrier licence, which costs approximately £150. Find out more in our guide to applying for a waste carrier licence.

A waste transfer station will accept various types of waste and recycling and provide your business with a waste transfer note. The note must be retained for two years to demonstrate compliance with commercial waste regulations.

On-site waste solutions

On-site waste management solutions can be highly effective for large-scale rural businesses, helping to reduce dependency on external waste collection services. Here are three of the most common solutions:

Composting – Rural farms can convert organic food and garden waste into nutrient-rich compost using on-site composting systems. Composting less than 60 tonnes of organic material does not require an environmental permit.
Compacting – Rural businesses can use compactors or balers to reduce the volume of recyclable waste for storage, enabling fewer collections or waste deliveries.
Anaerobic digestion – Small-scale anaerobic digesters can produce electricity, heat, and organic fertiliser from farm waste, offering an efficient on-site waste management solution.

Waste hierarchy for rural businesses

The waste hierarchy is designed to minimise the environmental impact of commercial waste by prioritising methods that avoid general waste disposal.

Adhering to the waste hierarchy can benefit rural businesses, helping them reduce the high commercial waste collection costs often associated with remote locations.

Here’s a summary of how the waste hierarchy applies to rural businesses:

Prevent – The first step in the waste hierarchy is to minimise waste generation. Optimising business operations, such as adopting precision farming, can significantly reduce waste at the source.
Reuse – Explore opportunities to reuse items such as pallets, containers, and furniture to minimise waste.
Recycle – Segregate easily recyclable materials such as cardboard and glass waste, and arrange for their collection and transport to a recycling facility.
Recover – Consider on-site waste solutions like composting, which can repurpose waste effectively.
Dispose – Dispose of any residual waste responsibly to a landfill or a local incinerator.

Regulations for rural waste management

In addition to the duty of care that all businesses have for waste, there are specific prohibitions on how rural businesses may dispose of waste:

Burning waste – The open burning of waste is generally prohibited unless authorised by an environmental permit.
Landfilling of waste – Establishing a landfill of any size requires an environmental permit and registration as a collector for the landfill tax.
Fly-tipping – The illegal dumping of waste is a criminal offence punishable by unlimited fines, vehicle seizure, and imprisonment for those involved.