EA report lists waste treatment capacity in England

For any site to receive waste from another site, it must be registered under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. Low risk activities can normally be covered by registering an Exemption, a process that is generally free. But for sites dealing with waste on any scale, it will need an Environmental Permit. Recent changes to the Permitting system have standardised some permits to simplify the process, but for sites that fall outside these standard permits where, for instance, they might deal with hazardous waste or they might handle very large tonnages, they need a bespoke permit. These are tailored to the site, cost more and take longer to get approved.

The UK has thousands of permitted sites and those that come under the EA’s jurisdiction in England can be identified through the Public Register. This shows the basic details of every permitted site and enables a waste producer to very easily identify whether a site that is being used for the disposal of its waste is approved.

The EA has recently published a report which gives a summary of Permitted capacity in England. It breaks that capacity down into the main treatment and disposal types gives a snapshot of current capabilities.

The table below shows the Permitted capacity that was in place on 1 March 2010. The Agency state that this information will be updated, but given how long it takes to get Permits and Planning approval for new sites, the position is unlikely to be much changed from that date. Permitted capacity does not necessarily mean operational capacity.

In total, the EA has over 3,500 sites with permitted treatment capacity. What this report doesn’t do is give any comparative information either to the volumes of waste produced or to previous years, so in planning terms, it is not a lot of help. But there is more data available on request from the EA and it does give an interesting snapshot as to the extensive capability we have in England.