Mobile plant to treat waste
In Northern Ireland
Waste mobile plants are used for waste management activities in Northern Ireland.
Contact your environmental regulator to check whether your business uses waste mobile plant.
What you must do
If you operate a waste mobile plant, you must have a waste management licence from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland.
Contact your environmental regulator
Further information
NIEA: Waste management licensing
In Scotland
Changes to mobile waste treatment in Scotland (from November 2025)
Before November 2025, SEPA issued waste mobile plant licences that allowed operators to carry out waste treatment without specifying a location. These licences automatically became EASR authorisations on 01 November 2025.
Under the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations (EASR), mobile plant can now only be used for:
- remedial treatment of land, or
- remedial treatment of the water environment
for example, treating contaminated soil or groundwater.
What you must do
If you operate waste mobile plant, you must now:
- have an EASR permit for remedial treatment activities; and
- submit a deployment plan (including a fee) before starting work at each location.
Deployment plans replace the old “site specific working plans”.
What is no longer covered by mobile plant authorisations
Some activities previously treated as mobile plant will not be authorised under EASR mobile plant rules, including:
- clinical waste treatment
- treatment or liming of sewage sludge
These will instead be controlled through authorisations at the location where they happen (e.g., sewage treatment works or restoration sites).
Further information
SEPA: Waste treatment for land or water remediation