The online Waste Directory has been expanded to help small- and medium-sized businesses comply with waste disposal laws in the UK.

The free directory, developed by NetRegs.gov.uk, now includes additional licensed sites, showing businesses their nearest facilities to recycle or dispose of their waste.

The directory helps businesses ensure they dispose of their waste legally. Serious incidents of fly-tipping are increasing each year, with local authorities in England having to deal with more than 2.6 million occurrences between April 2006 and March 2007 - a five per cent increase on the previous year.

The NetRegs Waste Directory gives businesses immediate

access to 3,169 Environment Agency-licensed waste sites across the UK and lists which of 59 different types of waste each can take.

Joan Ruddock, minister for waste, said: “Businesses have a legal duty to dispose of their waste responsibly. This directory makes it simpler for businesses and helps them to find the most suitable recycling and waste disposal sites for them quickly and means no-one should be tempted to fly-tip.”

The Waste Directory allows a business to input the waste type they want to dispose of together with their post code to get a list of the nearest waste sites, ranked by proximity and by how closely they match their user’s requirements.