How to choose a waste collection company: what to check before you sign
Responsibility for a waste stream does not leave with the truck. If your operator is not permitted for that particular code, or cannot document where the material went, the problem stays with your company. Here is what we check ourselves when we take on a new account — and what is worth checking on your side.
In short
- Ask for the environmental permit and find your exact waste code in its annexes.
- An operator that sorts and processes on its own site shortens the chain and pays the material at its real value.
- The loading–unloading form and the weight ticket are not bureaucracy — they are your evidence at an inspection.
The environmental permit, and the codes it was issued for
Any operator that collects, temporarily stores or treats waste needs an environmental permit issued by the county environmental protection agency. That document is not a certificate of existence: its annexes list exactly which waste codes the operator may accept and which operations it may perform on them.
Ask for a copy and look for your own code in it. A company permitted for 15 01 01 — paper and cardboard packaging — may not take your used oil, however attractive the price. Check the expiry date too: an expired permit turns every pickup into a non-conformity at the first inspection.
What happens to the material once it leaves your yard
Collection is only the first step of the waste hierarchy. The useful question is what comes next: is the material sorted and recovered, or simply transferred to another intermediary who eventually sends it to landfill?
An operator that sorts and processes on its own site can show you where each fraction ends up. We sort, bale and process cables at the Cristur yard, which removes at least one intermediary from the chain — and the price then reflects the real value of the material rather than the margin of a line of resellers.
The paperwork you get on every pickup
For every non-hazardous waste movement, what matters is the loading–unloading form required by HG 1061/2008, filled in correctly, with the weighed quantity and the waste code. For hazardous waste the conversation moves to the consignment form and to prior approval of the transport.
These documents are the basis of the waste records your company keeps under HG 856/2002 and of the annual report in the Integrated Environmental System. If an operator tells you it can all be sorted out without the paperwork, you are the one who pays for that shortcut at the next inspection.
Logistics, the weighbridge, and response time
A good contract states concretely which containers you get, how often they are emptied, how quickly an extra request is answered, and how the material is weighed. An operator with its own fleet — roll-off trucks, tippers, a grab crane — controls its own schedule; one that subcontracts transport passes somebody else's delays on to you.
Insist on a calibrated weighbridge and a weight ticket on every intake. The difference between a visual estimate and a documented weighing shows up on the invoice month after month, and with scrap metal it shows up fast.
Frequently asked questions
- Am I still responsible for my waste after the carrier collects it?
- Yes, for as long as you cannot prove you handed it to an operator permitted for that code, with the transport paperwork completed. Documented traceability is precisely what transfers responsibility.
- Which documents should I be left with after each pickup?
- The loading–unloading form — or the consignment form, for hazardous waste — the weight ticket, and at month end a summary of quantities by code for your waste records.
- Does it matter whether the collector has its own sorting facility?
- It matters in two places: price, because the intermediaries' margin disappears, and traceability, because the operator can show where each fraction went instead of pointing at another collector.
This article is informational and reflects our practice at the date of publication. Romanian environmental legislation changes frequently — for your company's specific situation, check the texts in force and consult the environmental protection agency or a specialist adviser.