Waste activities

If you carry out waste disposal or recovery activities you should check whether your activity is a listed activity.

Listed activities are explained in our guidance on PPC permits.

If your waste disposal or recovery activities are not listed activities then they may be a waste management activity.

Waste management activities include operating:

• landfill sites for inert waste
• waste transfer stations, eg collection points and civic amenity sites
• waste treatment plants, eg composting and anaerobic digestion
• scrap metal sites.

What you must do

If you carry out waste operations or waste management activities you must have a waste management licence from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) or SEPA in Scotland.

How to apply for a permit or licence

To find out how to apply for a permit or licence see our guidance on waste management licensing.

How do you apply for a waste management licence

The NIEA and SEPA have also prepared a generic toolkit available for all businesses in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

You can use the generic toolkit designed for each country to help you structure a management plan to control your business' environmental impacts.

For further information, see our guidance on toolkits to help you manage your environmental performance.

Northern Ireland environmental management toolkit

Scotland environmental management toolkit

Further information on waste activities

NIEA: Waste management licensing

SEPA: Waste management licensing

Waste mobile plant at waste or sewage sites

Waste mobile plants are used for waste management activities in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Waste mobile plant includes:

• mobile plant treating waste soil and contaminated material
• mobile crushers and screeners.

What you must do

If you operate a waste mobile plant, you must have a waste management licence from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency or SEPA.

Contact your environmental regulator

How to apply for a licence

NIEA: Apply online

SEPA: Application form