There are three sets of standard rules for sites accepting less than 75,000 tonnes of waste per annum.
We have revised the standard rules for this activity so there is now only one tonnage band.
Permitted wastes include green wastes and animal manures but do not include any catering waste and other wastes containing animal by-products Composting:
- can only be carried out under predominantly aerobic conditions in windrows located either indoors or outdoors
- cannot be carried out under deliberately anaerobic conditions.
These rules will not permit the burning of any wastes:
- in the open
- inside buildings, or
- in any form of incinerator.
Applying for a standard permit
You can apply for a standard permit if you can comply with the standard rules and meet the following risk criteria:
- the quantity of waste that can be accepted onto the site is less than 75,000 tonnes per annum
- the storage, physical treatment, composting and maturation of wastes must be at least 250 metres away from any residential property or workplace
- the activities must also be outside groundwater protection zones 1 (inner) or 2 (outer) and not within 50 metres of any spring or well, or any borehole not used to supply water for domestic or food production purposes; or 250 metres of any well, spring or borehole used to supply water for domestic or food production purposes
- the only discharges to controlled waters are surface water from the roofs of buildings and from areas of the site not used for the storage or treatment of wastes
- the activities are not carried out within 1 kilometre of a European site, Ramsar site or Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). You can find out this information by calling us on 0370 8506506, or by visiting either of the websites below (depending on whether your site is in England or Wales):
Applying for a bespoke permit
If you cannot comply with any of the standard rules, or meet any one of the criteria listed above, then you must apply for a bespoke permit. Your application must include additional information about the criteria that you cannot meet and how you intend to control the associated risks:
Cost of standard permits
The cost of standard permits can be found within our charging scheme. Please visit the Environmental Permitting (EP) charges page.
Standard rules
You can find the standard rules sets, generic risk assessment, guidance and application form by using the links below.
Look at the standard rules that you want to apply for and check that:
- the permitted activities include all the ones that you want to carry out
- the permitted waste types include all the wastes that you want to accept onto the site
- the permitted waste quantity is sufficient
- you can comply with all the other rules. We have written guidance to help you understand how to comply with the rules. We still publish three sets of standard rules for this activity but you can only apply for SR2008No16_75kte.
Download and check the rules:
We carried out a risk assessment to develop the risk criteria for these activities to produce the standard rules. We have provided it for your information, but you do not need to agree with it or send us a signed copy:
Record of changes to standard rules and generic risk assessment
A record of the changes to the standard rules and generic risk assessment since they were first published is available from the link below. The record of change was last updated in April 2011. If you operate under this set of standard rules, you must comply with the current version that is linked to this web page:
Guidance on how to comply with your standard permit
Guidance is provided in a document called 'How to Comply with your Environmental Permit'. This is available to download from our Environmental Permitting guidance page:
Application form and explanatory notes
The Environmental Permitting Regulations application form is available from the link below.
