What is a Collectors Licence?

This licence is required by a person that carries on a business as a scrap metal dealer other than at a site, and regularly engages in the course of that business in collecting waste materials and old broken/worn out or defaced articles by means of door to door visits.

A collector will need a licence to buy or sell any scrap metal collected.  Even if the material is provided free of charge, a licence is required in order to sell it on.

A collector's licence will cover any employees working for that business.  If they are not employed directly by that collector's business and are self-employed, they will need their own collector's licence even if they are collecting metal from the same van as a person who has a collector's licence.

Conditions (PDF, 50 KB) are attached to a Scrap Metal Dealers Collectors Licence.