Waste carrier registrations by area
How many upper-tier registrations the Environment Agency's public register holds with postcodes in each English region. We count it each month and publish the method, so you can check it.
The count
On 13 October 2026, the register held 149,254 upper-tier registrations that hadn’t expired. The table splits them by the postcode on each registration.
| Postcodes in | Registrations |
|---|---|
| North East | 5,440 |
| North West | 14,226 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 13,684 |
| East Midlands | 12,808 |
| West Midlands | 12,871 |
| East of England | 21,721 |
| London | 14,509 |
| South East | 30,039 |
| South West | 20,921 |
| Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or a postcode we couldn’t place | 3,035 |
| The whole register | 149,254 |
Counted 13 October 2026, from the register’s open-data download, which the Environment Agency last refreshed on 13 October 2026. The download had 429,544 rows of every tier that day.
What we count
We count the Environment Agency’s public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers, which anyone can search or download. An upper-tier registration is the one a business needs to carry, broker or deal in other people’s waste. We count a registration when it’s upper tier and its expiry date is on or after the day we count. Lower-tier registrations aren’t counted.
These are registrations on the register, which isn’t the same as a count of businesses, people or vehicles.
We match postcodes with the spaces taken out, so “CH41 1AA” and “CH411AA” count the same. A registration with no expiry date, or one we can’t read, isn’t counted. On the day of this count there were 0 with no expiry date and 0 we couldn't read.
How postcodes are grouped into regions
We group registrations by postcode district, the first half of a postcode, such as BN1 or CH41. Each district is counted in the region where most of its postcodes are, using the Office for National Statistics' postcode lookup (August 2026 release). The regions are the nine English regions the Office for National Statistics uses.
Postcodes don’t follow council or regional boundaries, so a few districts are split by one. A split district is counted whole in one region, so a registration near a boundary can sit in the row for the region next door.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
This is the Environment Agency’s register, which covers England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each keep their own, and in Wales that’s the public register kept by Natural Resources Wales. So the table covers England only.
A registration on this register in a district that’s mostly in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, or with a postcode we can’t read or place, is left out of the regions and shown on a line of its own.
Using these figures
You’re welcome to use them. Please say they’re upper-tier waste carrier, broker and dealer registrations with postcodes in the region, on the Environment Agency’s public register, and give the date they were counted. More about us is on our press page.