An environmental permit is a legal document, issued under Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007, 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.

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, and there are fewer requirements on the regulator in terms of what it needs to do to ensure compliance. 

Activities currently exempt are listed in Schedule 3 to the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007.  Operators are required to register with the appropriate authority if they are undertaking or planning to undertake one of these activities.

Defra, the Environment Agency and the Welsh Assembly Government are currently undertaking a review of the exemptions from environmental permitting.  The aim of the review is to provide a more risk-based and proportionate approach to the regulation of waste recovery and disposal operations, complementing the new environmental permitting system.

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:

1. Chapter 1: Energy: combustion, gasification, liquification and refining activities.

2. Chapter 2: Metals: ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, surface treating metals and plastic materials.

3. Chapter 3: Minerals: production of cement and lime, activities involving asbestos, manufacture of glass and glass fibre, other minerals, ceramics.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

Related Links

• Environment Agency Environmental Permitting
• Review of exemptions from environmental permitting
• Environmental Permitting