CSCS Environmental Awareness & Waste Questions
Pollution prevention, waste segregation and protected species.
These questions cover environmental awareness & waste for the CITB Health, Safety and Environment (HS&E) test, the exam UK construction workers pass to get a CSCS card.
Environmental Awareness & Waste: practice quiz
- 20 questions · 30 minutes · pass mark 90%
- Answers and explanations are shown at the end, with every question to review.
- A fresh 20 questions every time, drawn from all 134 in this topic's bank. Includes 2 select-two questions and 1 picture question, as in the real test.
- About 90 seconds a question, against about 54 in the real test, so there is time to think.
10 sample Environmental Awareness & Waste questions and answers
These 10 come from the 134 questions the practice quiz above draws from, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. Regulation 12 of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 sets a priority order. Which option sits at the very top of it?
Answer: Prevention, which means stopping the material becoming waste at all
- A) Disposal, once the load has been segregated properly into skips
- B) Other recovery, for example burning the material to generate energy
- C) Recycling, which reprocesses the material into a new usable product
- D) Prevention, which means stopping the material becoming waste at all (correct answer)
Why: Regulation 12(1) lists the hierarchy as prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery, then disposal. Prevention comes first because waste that is never created needs no further management. Recycling and other recovery sit lower down, and disposal is the last resort.
2. Regulation 35(2)(d) requires the written information to confirm one specific thing. What is it?
Answer: That the transferor has discharged the waste hierarchy duty in reg 12
- A) That the transferor has told the local authority about the movement
- B) That the transferor has paid the landfill tax due on the whole load
- C) That the transferor has discharged the waste hierarchy duty in reg 12 (correct answer)
- D) That the transferor has insured the load against theft while moving
Why: Regulation 35(2)(d) requires the note to confirm that the transferor has discharged the duty in regulation 12, the waste hierarchy duty. This ties the paperwork to the hierarchy so that the transfer note evidences that the priority order was actually applied.
3. Section 33(1)(c) makes it an offence to treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste in what manner?
Answer: In a manner likely to pollute the environment or harm human health
- A) In a manner likely to pollute the environment or harm human health (correct answer)
- B) In a manner that has not first been costed by the commercial team
- C) In a manner differing from the method shown on the tender drawing
- D) In a manner that the site's own waste contractor has not approved
Why: Section 33(1)(c) prohibits treating, keeping or disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health. The test is the risk created, not whether some internal commercial or design procedure was followed.
4. What use is a section 61 prior consent if the contractor is later prosecuted under section 60(8)?
Answer: It is a defence to prove the works matched the consent that was given
- A) It is a defence to prove the works matched the consent that was given (correct answer)
- B) It shifts all liability for the noise onto the local authority
- C) It halves any fine that the magistrates court eventually decides to impose
- D) It has no effect at all on any noise proceedings that follow
Why: Section 61(8) makes it a defence in proceedings for a section 60(8) offence to prove that the alleged contravention amounted to carrying out the works in accordance with a section 61 consent. Section 61(9) warns that the consent is no defence to a statutory nuisance action.
5. Hazardous waste is moved from one site to another site owned by the same business. What paperwork does the code of practice require?
Answer: A consignment note, as for every movement of hazardous waste
- A) A consignment note, as for every movement of hazardous waste (correct answer)
- B) A season ticket covering all of these internal moves
- C) A season ticket covering up to twelve months of these moves
- D) A standard non-hazardous waste transfer note and nothing else
Why: The code says a consignment note applies to all movements of hazardous waste, including movements from one premises to another within the same business.
6. How often must an upper tier waste carrier registration in England be renewed?
Answer: Every 3 years
- A) Never, it lasts for life
- B) Every 3 years (correct answer)
- C) Every year
- D) Every 10 years
Why: GOV.UK says an upper tier registration must be renewed every 3 years. A lower tier registration does not need renewing.
7. Can a fixed oil tank stand on a drip tray instead of being bunded?
Answer: No, fixed tanks must be bunded
- A) Yes, if it is a double-skinned tank
- B) Yes, if the tray is made of steel
- C) No, fixed tanks must be bunded (correct answer)
- D) Yes, if the tray holds a quarter
Why: GOV.UK says fixed tanks must be bunded and you cannot use a drip tray for them. Drip trays are an option for drums and some other containers.
8. What does the Environment Agency suggest to stop water getting into excavations in the first place?
Answer: Cut-off ditches, or covering the excavation
- A) Pumping continuously into a nearby stream
- B) Adding flocculant to the base of the dig
- C) Digging the excavation deeper than needed
- D) Cut-off ditches, or covering the excavation (correct answer)
Why: The Environment Agency says to prevent water entering excavations by using cut-off ditches or covering the excavation, which means less contaminated water to deal with.
9. How much notice must you give the Environment Agency before burying Japanese knotweed?
Answer: At least one month
- A) At least one month (correct answer)
- B) At least 24 hours
- C) At least one week
- D) No notice is needed
Why: GOV.UK says you must notify the Environment Agency at least one month before burying knotweed. One week is the notice a business must give before burning it.
10. Which of these does Defra list as something that may be a statutory nuisance?
Answer: Artificial light from premises
- A) Noise from a political march
- B) Artificial light from premises (correct answer)
- C) Traffic noise on a public road
- D) Smoke from a steam train
Why: Defra lists artificial light from premises among possible statutory nuisances. Its guidance says traffic noise, demonstrations and steam train smoke are not covered by statutory nuisance laws.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
Construction, demolition and excavation produce a large share of the UK's waste, and the law makes everyone who produces, carries or holds it responsible for where it ends up. The test covers the waste hierarchy, segregation, hazardous waste and spills. Most questions come back to one idea: waste stays your responsibility from the moment you create it until it is legally disposed of.
- The waste hierarchy and what sits at the top of it
- The duty of care, and checking your waste carrier is registered
- Waste transfer notes, hazardous waste consignment notes and how long each is kept
- What counts as hazardous waste on a construction site
- Segregating waste streams and reducing waste at source
- Fuel and oil storage, spill response and protecting drains and watercourses
- Reporting pollution incidents, and why burning waste on site is not an option
Key facts worth memorising
- The waste hierarchy in order
- The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 set the priority order as prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery (for example energy recovery), then disposal.
- Duty of care
- Under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, anyone who produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste must take all reasonable measures to stop it escaping and transfer it only to an authorised person, with a written description.
- Waste transfer note, kept 2 years
- Every load of non-hazardous waste leaving site needs a waste transfer note (or a document with the same information), signed by both businesses, with a copy kept for 2 years.
- Hazardous waste, kept 3 years
- Hazardous waste moves on a consignment note, the producer keeps one copy and gives two to the carrier, and the register is kept for 3 years at the premises that produced or stored the waste.
- What counts as hazardous
- The Environment Agency lists asbestos, chemicals such as brake fluid or print toner, batteries, solvents, pesticides, oils other than edible ones, fridges and other equipment containing ozone depleting substances, and hazardous waste containers.
- The incident hotline
- The Environment Agency runs a 24 hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60 for pollution and waste crime in England.
- Digital waste tracking is coming, not here
- Defra's digital waste tracking service becomes mandatory for permitted waste receiving sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from October 2026, and for waste carriers, brokers and dealers from October 2027. It does not replace transfer notes or consignment notes, which continue alongside it.
What people get wrong
Once the skip leaves site, it is the carrier's problem.
The duty of care follows the waste. You must check the carrier is registered, describe the waste accurately, keep the transfer note and not let it be disposed of illegally.
Recycling is the top of the waste hierarchy.
Prevention comes first, then preparing for re-use, then recycling. Ordering the right quantity and reusing an off-cut both rank above sending material away to be recycled.
A small diesel or oil spill will soak away and do no lasting harm.
Fuel and oil travel through soil and drains into groundwater and watercourses. Stop, contain, tell your supervisor, then clean up. The used spill pads are then hazardous waste in their own right.
Cutting waste is management's job, not mine.
Everyone on site shares it. The ordering, storing, cutting and sorting decisions are made by the people doing the work.
Answering these questions in the test
Environmental questions reward the answer that keeps material out of the ground, the air and the water. Where options are ranked, 'use less in the first place' beats 'recycle it', which beats 'send it to landfill'. Anything involving burning waste on site, burying it, pouring it away or letting it reach a drain is wrong every time. For a spill the sequence is stop, contain, report, then clean up. And when a question asks whose responsibility something is, assume the answer includes you.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated. Our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/988/regulation/12/made
- legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/43/section/34
- gov.uk/dispose-business-commercial-waste
- gov.uk/dispose-business-commercial-waste/waste-transfer-notes
- gov.uk/dispose-hazardous-waste
- gov.uk/dispose-hazardous-waste/producers-and-holders
- gov.uk/report-environmental-problem
- gov.uk/government/publications/digital-waste-tracking-service/digital-waste-tracking-service
Topics that come up alongside environmental awareness & waste
Ready for the real thing?
When you are scoring 90% or better here, take a CSCS mock test for Operatives under exam conditions, then how to book the CSCS test. Still under 90%? A full CSCS exam test shows which topic to drill next.