Short answer: yes, it is perfectly legal – provided the person you are paying is a registered waste carrier, and provided you have taken reasonable steps to check that they are.
The longer answer matters, because Wales does this differently from England and almost every guide you will find online is written for England.
The duty of care is yours, not just theirs
Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 places a duty of care on anyone who produces, carries or disposes of controlled waste. Section 34(2A) extends it specifically to householders:
“It shall be the duty of the occupier of any domestic property in England or Wales to take all such measures available to him as are reasonable in the circumstances to secure that any transfer by him of household waste produced on the property is only to an authorised person…”
In plain English: the rubbish is your responsibility, and handing it to somebody does not end that responsibility unless that somebody is authorised to take it.
The fine in Wales is £300
The Household Waste Duty of Care (Fixed Penalties) (Wales) Regulations 2019 came into force in February 2019 and inserted section 34ZB into the Act. It allows an enforcement authority in Wales – either Natural Resources Wales or your local council – to issue a fixed penalty notice of £300, reduced to £150 if paid within ten days.
That is a fixed amount. England operates a variable range, which is one of several reasons English guidance is no use to you here. In more serious cases, prosecution is possible instead, and since 2015 magistrates’ fines for this offence have been unlimited.
What you are actually fined for
This is the part that gets overstated, usually by waste companies trying to frighten people into booking.
You are not automatically liable because your sofa turned up in a lay-by. The Welsh Government’s own guidance to local authorities says so directly:
“An authorised person may still fly-tip waste, so tracing fly-tipped waste to a household does not necessarily demonstrate a breach of the duty of care.”
The offence is failing to take reasonable measures to check. If you asked for a registration number, looked it up, and got a receipt, you have done what the law asks of you. If you handed twenty quid to a van that pulled up offering to take stuff away and asked nothing at all, you have not.
What “reasonable measures” means in practice
Welsh Government guidance sets out what to keep:
- Details of the business and of any vehicle used, which can be linked to an authorised operator
- A record of the checks you made, including the operator’s registration, permit or exemption number
- A receipt for the transaction which includes the business details of a registered operator
- A copy or photograph of the carrier’s registration
You are not legally required to keep that evidence – Natural Resources Wales is explicit on that point – but you would be daft not to. A photo on your phone of the van and the registration number takes ten seconds.
You also do not need to complete or keep a waste transfer note as a householder. That is a business requirement. Any firm telling a householder they must sign and keep one has confused the two.
Natural Resources Wales, not the Environment Agency
If you take one thing from this page, take this. Waste carriers operating in Wales register with Natural Resources Wales. The Environment Agency is the regulator for England.
Welsh upper tier registration numbers begin with CBDU. Upper tier is what a rubbish removal firm needs, because it covers carrying waste produced by somebody else. Lower tier registration – which is free and does not expire – only covers a business moving its own waste, and is not sufficient for a clearance company.
You can search the register here: NRW waste carriers, brokers and dealers public register. It holds well over 18,000 active registrations and is searchable by business name or number.
How bad is the problem locally?
Wales recorded 48,367 fly-tipping incidents in 2024–25, a 15% increase on the year before. 71% of it was household waste – somebody’s mattress, somebody’s bags of clear-out. That is roughly 133 incidents every day.
Locally, recorded incidents in Caerphilly county borough rose 63%. Newport took 2,386 enforcement actions, more than any other Welsh authority. Cardiff brought 20 prosecutions, the highest in Wales. In February 2026 the Welsh Government rolled out trail cameras to councils and said it is reviewing whether the penalty levels should go up.
The thirty-second version
- Ask for the waste carrier registration number. In Wales it starts with CBDU.
- Check it on the NRW public register.
- Photograph the van and its number plate.
- Get a receipt with the business details on it.
- If they will not give you a number, walk away. NRW specifically warns about social media waste removers with no carrier reference.
That is the whole of it. Do that and you have discharged your duty of care, whoever you use.