You must register premises in England or Wales where you produce or hold hazardous waste.

Hazardous waste is waste that can be harmful to human health or the environment. Examples include:

• asbestos
• lead-acid batteries
• solvent-based inks and paints
• pesticides
• oils (except edible ones) – eg car oil
• fluorescent light tubes
• equipment containing ozone-depleting substances – eg fridges
• hazardous packaging waste

The Environment Agency can help you check if your waste is hazardous.

You don’t need to register if you produce less than 500 kilograms of hazardous waste in any 12-month period.

You don’t need to register where the premises are ships.

Scotland

Businesses in Scotland dealing with hazardous waste (‘special waste’) may need different licences or permits.

Businesses involved in several manufacturing and farming processes will need a pollution prevention and control permit.

Businesses that store, treat or recycle waste will need a waste management licence.

Northern Ireland

Companies in Northern Ireland don’t need to register.

How to register in England or Wales

You need:

• one application for each premises – you can register up to 5 premises using the online system
• the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) Code used to classify your business type
• your company number – if your business is registered with Companies House

To register more than 5 premises (‘bulk registrations’) you’ll need to register by email, phone or post.

Online registration

To register online click ‘Start now’ at the top of this page. You must pay an £18 registration fee for each of your premises.

Other ways to register

You can also apply by post or telephone.

Single premises form

Download ‘Form HWRP01 – hazardous waste registration single premises’ (PDF, 350KB)

Download ‘Guidance – HWRP01’ (PDF, 70KB)

Bulk premises forms
Use form HWRB01 and the ‘List of premises’ template. This list will need to be sent in a format called XML.

Download ‘Form HWRB01 – hazardous waste registration multiple premises’ (PDF, 300KB)

Download ‘Guidance – HWRB01’ (PDF, 70KB)

Download ‘Template for listing your premises’ (XLS, 650KB)

Download ‘Guidance – how to list your premises’ (PDF, 200KB)

You must send your forms to:

The Environment Agency
Hazardous Waste Notifications
Quadrant 2
99 Parkway Avenue
Sheffield
S9 4WF

The Environment Agency
hwnotifications@environment-agency.gov.uk
Telephone: 03708 502 858
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
Find out about call charges.

Fees

The fees are:

• online – £18 per site
• telephone – £23 per site
• post – £28 per site
• to register more than 5 sites at a time – £18 per site

For online and telephone applications pay by credit or debit card (excluding American Express and Diners Club International).

For postal applications pay by cheque, postal order or BAC.

Renew your licence

The licence lasts for 12 months and must be renewed each year, unless the premises produce less than 500kg of hazardous waste.

Renewal needs to be within 30 days. After that you must make a completely new notification.

To renew click ‘Start now’ at the top of this page.

You need your registration number to legally permit someone to collect your hazardous waste.

Mixing different types of waste
Mixing different categories of hazardous waste, or hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste or non-waste, is not allowed, unless you are specifically authorised to do so.

You must have an environmental permit if you mix hazardous waste as part of the process of disposal or recovery of the waste.

Fines and penalties

You are committing an offence and may be fined up to £5,000 if you produce, hold or remove hazardous waste from premises that are neither registered nor exempt.