Permitting

An environmental permit is a legal document, issued under Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010, which ensure that authorised activities do not cause harm to the environment or endanger human health.

On April 6 2008, the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007 replaced the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994.  This means that there are no longer separate regulation regimes for waste management and Pollution Prevention and Control (PCC) activities, with both being regulated by way of Environmental Permits.

A further update of the permitting system was introduced on April 6 2010 in the shape of the Environmental Permitting Regulations (England and Wales) 2010. This aims to bring together in one set of rules the permitting requirements of recent EU legislation such as the Batteries Directive alongside existing waste permitting requirements.

In Northern Ireland and Scotland, waste activities may need to apply for a waste management licence, with the systems being administered by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency respectively.

Exemptions

EU Member States have the discretion to provide exemptions from the need for a permit for certain waste recovery activities, and disposal activities at the place of production.  The exemptions system is intended to be a light touch regulatory regime that aims to encourage low risk waste recovery operations. 

It is therefore less onerous on industry than environmental permitting in terms of what is needed when registering with many exemptions being free to register, while there are fewer requirements on the regulator in terms of what it needs to do to ensure compliance.

A review of the exemptions system was unveiled in 2008, culminating in changes which Defra said would create a 'fairer and simpler' system for the 143,000 operators who have previously carried out one or more activities without an environmental permit.

Activities currently exempt are listed in Schedule 3 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010.  Operators are required to register with the appropriate authority if they are undertaking or planning to undertake one of these activities.

Permitting requirements

You require an environmental permit if you operate:

  1. an installation (see list below)
  2. a waste operation
  3. a mobile plant (carrying out either one of the installation activities or a waste operation)

Installations

The following activities are prescribed in chapters under Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Regulations:

  • Chapter 1: Energy: combustion, gasification, liquification and refining activities.
  • Chapter 2: Metals: ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, surface treating metals and plastic materials.
  • Chapter 3: Minerals: production of cement and lime, activities involving asbestos, manufacture of glass and glass fibre, other minerals, ceramics.
  • Chapter 4: Chemicals: organic, inorganic, fertiliser production, plant health products and biocides, pharmaceutical production, explosives production, manufacturing involving carbon disulphide or ammonia, storage in bulk.
  • Chapter 5: Waste management: incineration and co-incineration of waste, landfills, other forms of disposal of waste, recovery of waste, production of fuel from waste.
  • Chapter 6: Other: paper, pulp and board manufacture, carbon, tar and bitumen, coating activities, printing and textile treatments, dyestuffs, timber, rubber, food industries, intensive farming.

Source: Defra

For more information on permitting, please visit the Environment Agency website or click here for Defra guidance for exempt operations.

Details about permitting and waste management licences can also be found on the netregs website.

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