Permitting

Are you affected?
What is required?
Current situation
Further information

 

Are you affected?

In England and Wales, if you with to carry out a waste treatment activity on a site, you will need to get a Permit from the Environment Agency of Local Authority.
‘Treatment’ is considered to be where waste either has a process applied to it – other than simple storage processes like baling or compaction – or where waste from other sites is stored. Therefore, for instance, if you bring waste back from your shops to one site for sorting, that site would need a Permit.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, permitted activities are covered by the Pollution Prevention and Control requirements and you would need to register with SEPA or the local council.
Some extremely low risk activities covered by Exemptions. If you just store recyclable waste at a site prior to onward transfer to a reprocessor, that would require the site to be registered an Exemption with the appropriate Agency.

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What is required?

In England and Wales

In April 2008, new Environmental Permitting Regulations came into force that simplifies and combines pollution prevention and control (PPC) permitting and waste management licensing (WML).

A Defra Guidance document explains the main requirements whilst the EA have published a series of Guidance documents.

The previous Regulations have now been replaced by the The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 which consolidate recent amendments and incorporate the new Exemptions which will supersede those listed below from 6 April 2010. A summary of these have been produced by the EA whilst a Draft Guidance document produced by Defra gives a practical explanation of how they should work. 

We have produced tables to show which replacement relates to which original exemption. 

There are three types of permits – standard, bespoke and consolidated. Most waste activities that require a Permit are likely to fall under the Standard Permit requirement. These include transfer stations, sorting facilities, composting sites and pet crematoria. Information is available on the EA website and applications can be made online by clicking onto the relevant activity. Charges are applied for Permits under a fairly complex charging scheme. Guidance is available on the charging mechanism.

The Regulations require sites with Environmental Permits to demonstrate their competence to run the site. This requires the site to have a suitably trained person, either someone with a Certificate of Technical Competence or someone who is Deemed Competent on the site, depending on the level of permit. 'Competence' used to last for life once a person had passed the course or been approved as Deemed Competent, but as from 1 March 2009, all CoTC and DC holders will be required to pass a test of Continuing Competence every two years with the first test being required before 1 March 2011. WAMITAB is the main awarding body for CoTC who have produced an extremely comprehensive FAQ.  Guidance has been produced by the Environment Agency for England and Wales.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, waste management licensing is managed under Waste Management Licences and regulated by SEPA and the NIEA.

Exemptions are likely to be much more relevant for most businesses. There are two types of Exemption – simple or complex. The simple exemptions are FREE and cover things like sorting of cardboard or glass on site prior to treatment and will generally have a volume throughput limit – such as baling, sorting or shredding of 3000 tonnes per week of cardboard. Simple Exemptions do not generally allow any actual treatment on site that sees a change in the nature of the product. Applying for a simple Exemption requires a short form to be completed and sent to the Agency.
Complex exemptions apply to waste such as sewage sludges and construction waste and require a fee of up to £565 to be paid.
SEPA Exemptions information can be found here.

Exemptions are now categorised as:

U - use of waste
T - Treatment of waste
S - storage of waste
D - disposal of waste

Explanations of these can be found on the EA site, but on our Wastesupport site, you can view the comparison with the previous exemptions and which new exemption replaces which old one.

U1 – Use of waste in construction
U2 – Use of baled end-of-life tyres in construction
U3 - Use of waste in the construction of entertainment or educational installations etc
U4 – Burning of waste as a fuel in a small appliance
U5 – Use of waste derived biodiesel as fuel
U6 - Use of sludge for the purposes of re-seeding a waste water treatment plant
U7 – Use of final effluent to clean a highway gravel bed
U8 – Direct and beneficial use of waste for a specified purpose
U9 – Use of waste to manufacture finished goods
U10 – Spreading waste on agricultural land to confer benefit
U11 – Spreading waste on non-agricultural land to confer benefit
U12 – Spreading mulch
U13 – Spreading of plant matter to confer benefit
U14 – Incorporation of ash into soil
U15 – Pig and poulty ash
U16 – Use of De-polluted end-of-life vehicles for vehicle parts

T1 - Cleaning, washing, spraying or coating of relevant waste
T2 - Recovery of textiles
T4 - Preparatory treatments (baling, sorting, shredding etc)
T5 - Screening and blending of waste
T6 - Treatment of waste wood and waste plant matter by chipping, shredding, cutting or pulverising
T8 - Mechanical treatment of end-of-life tyres
T9 - Recovery of scrap metal
T10 - Sorting mixed waste
T11 - Repair or refurbishment of WEEE (Waste electrical and electronic equipment)
T12 - Manual treatment of waste
T13 - Treatment of waste food
T14 - Crushing and emptying waste vehicle oil filters
T15 - Treatment of waste aerosol cans
T16 - Treatment of waste toner cartridges by sorting, dismantling, cleaning or refilling
T17 - Crushing waste fluorescent tubes
T18 - Dewatering using flocculants
T19 - Physical treatment of waste edible oil and fat to produce biodiesel
T20 - Treatment of waste at a water treatment works
T21 - Recovery of waste at a waste water works
T22 - Treatment of animal by-product waste at a collection centre
T23 - Aerobic composting and associated prior treatment
T24 - Anaerobic digestion at premises used for agriculture and burning of resultant biogas
T25 - Anaerobic digestion at premises not used for agriculture and burning of resultant biogas
T26 - Treatment of kitchen waste in a wormery
T27 - Treatment of sheep dip for disposal
T28 - Sorting and denaturing of controlled medicines and drugs for disposal
T29 - Treatment of non-hazardous pesticides by carbon filtration for disposal
T30 - Recovery of silver
T31 – Recovery of monopropylene glycol from aircraft antifreeze fluids
T32 – Treatment of waste in a biobed or bio-filter
T33 – Recovery of central heating oil by filtration

S1 – Storage of waste in secure containers
S2 – Storage of waste in a secure place
S3 – Storage of sludge

D1 – Deposit of waste from dredging of inland waters
D2 – Deposit of waste from a railway sanitary convenience
D3 – Deposit of waste from a portable sanitary convenience
D4 – Deposit of agricultural waste consisting of plant tissue under a Plant Health Notice
D5 – Depositing samples of waste for the purposes of testing or analysing them
D6 – Disposal by incineration
D7 – Burning waste in the open
D8 – Burning waste at dock under a Plant Health Order Notice

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Further information

Environment Agency

Netregs

SEPA - Review of waste regulation

Northern Ireland

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