# Waste carrier registration types and tiers — waste-carrier

> Upper and lower tier, carrier, broker and dealer: what each registration permits, and how many exist.

## Registration types and tiers

Two things are recorded about every registration: its **tier**, which decides whether the business may handle other people's waste, and its **type**, which describes what it does.

### Upper tier

An upper tier registration is what a business needs to carry, broker or deal in *other people's* waste for money. If someone is taking waste away from your premises as a service, this is the registration they must hold.

[The 145,860 upper tier registrations](/tier/upper.md)

### Lower tier

A lower tier registration covers a business moving its own waste, or one of the narrow exempt categories — a charity, a waste collection authority, or a carrier of animal by-products or mine waste. It is free and does not expire in the same way.

[The 272,661 lower tier registrations](/tier/lower.md)

### Registration type

| Registration type | Registrations | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Carrier, Broker, Dealer](/type/carrier-broker-dealer.md) | 338,713 | 80.9 % |
| [Carrier Dealer](/type/carrier-dealer.md) | 76,781 | 18.3 % |
| [Broker Dealer](/type/broker-dealer.md) | 3,027 | 0.7 % |

### Who registers

| Applicant type | Registrations | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Company | 197,127 | 47.1 % |
| Sole trader | 183,989 | 44 % |
| Partnership | 22,757 | 5.4 % |
| Charity | 8,826 | 2.1 % |
| Public body | 1,339 | 0.3 % |
| Authority | 626 | 0.1 % |

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Página: https://waste-carrier.pages.dev/types/
Fonte: Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers Public Register — Environment Agency, England
Recolha: 2026-08-18