Terms and conditions for waste collection services

1. Who we are

Laser Waste Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales, trading as Laser Waste.

We will not arrange a collection unless we hold the upper tier waste carrier and broker registration for the nation it takes place in, together with the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 licence these services require. We will give you the numbers on request.

2. These terms, and how our contract is formed

These terms apply to every collection we arrange for you, and they override anything printed on your purchase order or other document unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

A quotation is an invitation to proceed, not an offer, and it is open for the period stated on it. A contract comes into existence when we confirm your instruction in writing. Each confirmed collection is a separate contract on these terms.

You are contracting as a business. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 does not apply, and neither of us is relying on any statement not set out in these terms or the quotation.

3. What we do, and what we do not do

We act as your agent. We arrange for your waste to be collected, carried and delivered to permitted third-party facilities for recovery or disposal, and where the material has recovery value we arrange its sale on your behalf.

We do not buy your waste and we do not take ownership of it. Title remains yours until it passes to the recovery facility or to the purchaser of the recovered metal. Risk in the material remains yours throughout, save that while it is in our possession we hold it as bailee and are responsible for taking reasonable care of it.

We do not operate a permitted waste site, and we do not carry out recovery or disposal ourselves.

We will select facilities that hold the environmental permits or exemptions required for the material concerned, and will take reasonable care in selecting them. We are not responsible for how an independent permitted facility operates once material has been delivered to it, beyond that duty of reasonable care in selection.

4. Your duty of care remains yours

This is the most important thing in this document. As the producer of the waste, you hold the duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. That duty cannot be transferred to us by contract, and nothing here purports to transfer it.

What we do is help you discharge it: we classify each stream in writing before anything moves, we arrange compliant carriage, we select permitted facilities, and we produce and return the documentation. You remain responsible for describing your waste accurately, for the condition it is in when we arrive, and for keeping the records the law requires you to keep.

We have our own duties under the same section as a broker arranging the recovery of your waste, and we comply with them. They sit alongside your duty as producer; neither replaces the other.

5. Describing your waste

You must give us, before collection, everything you know about the material, including:

• the alloy or alloys, and the physical form;
• the approximate quantity;
• whether it has been passivated, wetted, or otherwise treated, and whether it is known or suspected to be contaminated;
• any safety data sheets, analytical results or process knowledge relevant to its composition or reactivity;
• anything that makes it unusual, unstable, or different from what you have sent before.

You warrant that the information you give us is accurate and complete as far as you are aware, and that you have not withheld anything that would affect how the material must be handled, packaged, carried or treated.

Telling us that you do not know something is not a breach of this clause. Telling us something that is wrong, or staying silent about something you knew, is.

6. Assessment and acceptance

We classify each stream against the List of Waste and WM3 guidance and establish its transport category before anything is packed. Nothing moves until that assessment is complete and recorded in writing.

We may decline any material, before or at collection, where we reasonably consider that it falls outside what we agreed, that it cannot be carried or treated safely or lawfully, or that the information given about it is insufficient to classify it. Declining material is not a breach of this contract by us.

We may open, inspect, sample and test any container before accepting it. We would expect to do so only in exceptional circumstances, and it is at our discretion rather than something we do as a matter of routine — but where the description and the material appear not to match, it is how we establish which is right before anything moves.

7. Material that is not as described

If material presented for collection differs from your description in a way that matters, we may refuse to load it, or unload and return it, or set it aside pending further assessment, and we will tell you why.

You will reimburse us for the reasonable additional costs we incur as a result — further assessment or analysis, different packaging, a separate journey, additional treatment or disposal charges, cleaning or decontamination, and any charge a facility passes to us for rejecting or reprocessing a load.

You will indemnify us against claims, penalties, losses and reasonable costs arising from material that was not as you described it, including damage to vehicles, plant or other loads, contamination of a facility's stock, and enforcement action taken against us because of it. This indemnity does not apply to the extent the loss was caused by our own negligence or breach.

This indemnity is not subject to the limit in clause 15. The cap there applies to what can go wrong in performing the service; this applies to loss caused by our being told something that was not true, which is within your control and not ours.

8. Containers and packaging

We supply containers appropriate to the classification of each stream where you ask us to, and they remain ours. You are responsible for keeping them in good condition while they are on your site, for using them only for the material they were supplied for, and for not overfilling them.

Where you use your own containers, you are responsible for their suitability and condition, and for ensuring they meet any packaging requirements that apply to the material.

Containers are hired to you at the rate in the quotation. If one is returned damaged beyond fair wear and tear, or is not returned at all, we will charge you the reasonable cost of repairing or replacing it.

9. Access and collection

You will give safe access to the collection point at the agreed time, provide a safe place to load, and tell us in advance about site rules, restrictions on vehicle size or access times, and any hazards.

Collection times are estimates given in good faith. We will tell you as soon as we can if a collection has to move.

10. Carriage

We arrange carriage in accordance with the requirements applying to the material, including the carriage of dangerous goods requirements where the classification calls for them. Reactive metal powders frequently fall within those requirements even where the waste itself is not hazardous, and the two questions are decided separately.

11. Documentation

We prepare the documentation each movement requires and return your copy: a waste transfer note where the material is non-hazardous, or a hazardous waste consignment note where it is not, together with a statement of what was recovered and where the residue went.

You must keep those records — currently two years for transfer notes and three for hazardous waste consignment notes. Digital waste tracking is replacing these paper documents under the Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026, and where a movement falls within that system we will record it there instead. Our obligation is to produce whatever the regime in force requires at the time of the movement.

12. Recovered value, and how we account to you

Where material has recovery value, we arrange its sale on your behalf and account to you for your share of the proceeds. Your share is a fixed percentage, agreed in writing before collection. It is agreed for each contract rather than published, because it depends on the material and the arrangement.

We account to you within 90 days of the material being sold. You may take your share as a payment or as a credit against a future collection. Our own charges are invoiced separately and are not deducted from your share.

We will not pay you in cash, and cannot: section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 prohibits cash payment for scrap metal and provides no exemption. Payment is by electronic transfer or crossed cheque.

Recovery value depends on the alloy, the form, the contamination state and the market at the time of sale. We do not guarantee any particular return, and a figure discussed before collection is an estimate unless we have expressly agreed a fixed price in writing.

We will give you a statement showing what was recovered, what it realised, and how your share was calculated.

13. Our charges and payment

Our charges are those in the quotation. Unless stated otherwise they exclude VAT, which we add at the rate in force.

Our charges are payable in advance. We collect once payment has cleared, and we do not offer a credit account. There is no minimum charge.

If you pay late we may charge interest and reasonable recovery costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and may suspend further collections while an account is overdue. We may set off amounts you owe us against proceeds we hold for you.

14. Cancellation and abortive collections

You may cancel a booked collection without charge by giving us at least 72 hours' notice. We refund anything you have already paid for a collection cancelled in time.

Where you cancel with less notice, or we attend and cannot load — because access was not available, the material was not ready, or it was not as described — we may charge an abortive collection fee.

15. Our liability

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for:

• death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
• fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• breach of the terms implied by section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, or anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

Subject to that, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, goodwill or anticipated savings, for loss arising from your own failure to describe the material accurately, or for any indirect or consequential loss.

We perform the services with reasonable care and skill. We do not warrant that any particular classification outcome, recovery yield or price will be achieved.

16. Insurance

We maintain the insurance appropriate to the services we provide, and will give you evidence of our cover on request.

17. Confidentiality

Neither of us will disclose the other's confidential information, except to those who need it to perform this contract, or where the law or a regulator requires it. We treat what we learn about your processes, alloys and volumes as confidential. We will not name you as a customer or publish anything identifying you without your written consent.

18. Data protection

Each of us is an independent controller of the personal data we hold in connection with this contract, and each will comply with UK data protection law. How we handle personal data is set out in our privacy policy. Where the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 requires us to verify and record the identity of a person we take metal from, we do so to comply with a legal obligation.

19. Events outside our control

Neither of us is liable for failure to perform caused by something beyond our reasonable control. If it continues for more than a reasonable period, either of us may end the affected collection without liability.

20. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or end the services if you materially breach these terms and do not put it right within a reasonable time of being asked, if you fail to pay, or if continuing would put us in breach of our own regulatory obligations. Ending the contract does not affect anything already owed, or the clauses that are meant to survive it — including clauses 7, 15, 17 and 22.

21. Sub-contracting

We may carry the material ourselves or sub-contract carriage to a registered carrier, and will arrange recovery and disposal through permitted third-party facilities. Either way we remain responsible to you for the services we agreed to arrange, and we do not need your consent to change how carriage is performed.

22. General

• You may not assign this contract without our written consent. We may assign or transfer it on notice to you.
• A person who is not a party has no right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
• These terms, the quotation and our written confirmation are the whole agreement between us.
• Any variation must be in writing and agreed by both of us.
• If a court finds any provision unenforceable, the rest continues in force and that provision applies with the minimum modification needed to make it enforceable.
• Delay in enforcing a term is not a waiver of it.

23. Resolving disputes

If something goes wrong, tell us and we will try to settle it between us. If we cannot, both of us agree to attempt to resolve it by mediation before starting court proceedings, using a mediator we agree on, and to share the mediator's fee equally.

Neither of us has to mediate before applying for an injunction or any other urgent remedy, and nothing here stops either of us going to court once mediation has been attempted or refused.

24. Governing law and jurisdiction

This contract and any dispute arising out of it, including non-contractual disputes, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.