What is in scope, precisely
The scope is domestic-style upholstered seating, and it applies wherever that seating turns up — a house, a rented flat, a waiting room, a staff canteen. The setting does not change the classification; the item does.
Anything made before 2019 is assumed to contain the fire-retardant chemicals. There is no requirement to test each item, and no benefit in guessing downward.
Mattresses are outside it, which is worth knowing because they are so often collected alongside. So are wooden chairs with no padding and deckchairs.
- Upholstered seating made before 2019
- Sofas, sofa beds, armchairs, recliners
- Padded dining, kitchen and office chairs
- Stools, bean bags, futons, cushions
- OUT: wooden chairs with no fabric
- OUT: mattresses, beds, curtains, blinds
Segregation is the operational change
This is the part that changes how you load a van. Old seating must be kept apart from other waste, kept undamaged, and kept separate when it is unloaded as well as when it is carried.
Mix it and the consequence is disproportionate: the entire load is then treated as contaminated waste, not just the seating in it. A single armchair thrown in with a house clearance turns a routine load into one that should have been handled and priced differently.
In practice that means either a separate compartment, a separate run, or seating loaded last and unloaded first into its own bay. Whatever the method, it has to survive the unloading, not just the drive.
Booking a collection with seating in it?
Tell us when you book — it changes how we load, and that's easier planned than discovered.
Paperwork and codes
This waste travels under the code 20 03 07, and the description should list the other substances likely to be present rather than just naming the item.
Everything else about the duty of care (your legal responsibility for waste you produce) applies as normal: check the carrier is registered with SEPA, describe the waste accurately, and keep the transfer note for two years. Our registration is WCR/R/3002381 and it is on the public register.
The endpoint has to be a facility permitted to destroy it — high-temperature incineration or an energy-from-waste plant. Landfill is not permitted to accept it, so a transfer note showing a landfill destination for this waste is a problem on its face.
Who this bites hardest
Furniture retailers running a take-back on delivery. The old suite leaving the house is waste from the moment it is loaded, and it cannot travel back mixed with packaging and pallets.
House clearance and man-and-van firms, because almost every full clearance contains at least one item in scope, and a mixed load is the default way those jobs have always been packed.
Offices and hospitality on a refit, where padded chairs run into the hundreds — that is office clearance and pub and restaurant clearance territory, and the seating volume is usually the largest single element.
How we handle it
We keep upholstered seating separate on the load and consign it under 20 03 07 to a facility permitted to take it. It does not go into a general clearance load, and it does not get shredded for parts.
For trade customers that means the rest of your load stays classified as it should be, which is the commercial point as much as the compliance one — one armchair should not reclassify a whole lorry.
If you are booking a collection that includes seating, say so when you book. It changes how we load and it is easier to plan than to discover. See builders waste removal for the wider trade picture and waste guidance for builders for the general duties.
