Register or renew as a hazardous waste producer or holder

Do I need to register my premises?

If you produce or hold hazardous waste at any premises in England and Wales you must register it each year, unless the total quantity is less than 500kg each year. 

Key points:

• The registration is valid for 12 months and must be renewed each year.
• All types of premises that produce or hold less than 500kg of hazardous waste in a year are exempt from registration. You don't need to inform us that you are exempt.
• Premises in Scotland or Northern Ireland are not required to register.
• The regulations in England and Wales are the same.

More information can be obtained from our guidance document and the supporting regulatory position statement below:

• Do I need to notify my premises? (PDF, 307KB)
• Regulatory position statement on premises notification (RPS 025) (PDF, 70KB)

For agricultural premises only we will not count the weight of end of life vehicles (scrap vehicles) as counting towards the 500kg threshold.

If you operate a mobile service you should also read:

• HWR07 Mobile services. (version 4, updated April 2011) (PDF, 449KB)

If you produce or accept hazardous waste you may need a permit under the Environmental Permitting Regulations as well:

• Environmental permitting

Making or renewing a registration

You can register your own premises or do this on behalf of someone else. However, before you register someone else, you must have their permission. Only producers in England and Wales are required to register, sites in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not have to register.

Registrations last for one year and you can renew a registration up to one month before it expires. The fees charged for registrations purely cover our administration costs and so we are unable to refund incorrectly registered sites.

To register your premises you will need to know the:

• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes (Excel, 1.16MB)
  Standard Industry Classification (SIC) is a method of grouping businesses by the type of economic activity they are involved in. The 2003 version of the SIC codes must be used for registration.

You will also need your Companies House number if you are a limited company:

• Companies House

You can register or renew in one of the following ways:

• Online (£18 per site) (for five sites or fewer)
  You will need a credit or debit card. The online registration system does not work in text only view. For more than five sites please refer to the information on bulk registrations. 
• by phone (£23) or post a paper application form (£28)
• in bulk (£18 for each registration) (For more than five sites)

Our phone number for enquiries about registration:

Telephone 08708 502 858 between 9am and 5pm (any weekday except Good Friday, Christmas Day, bank holidays or other public holidays).

For more information about registering your premises, please see our guidance document below:

• How to register your premises (PDF, 83KB)

Checking a producer registration

You can check that a site is registered by searching the Public Registers. Select 'hazardous waste' from the drop-down box.

It's an offence to remove hazardous waste from a premises unless it is registered or exempt.

A waste carrier must be satisfied that the producer is exempt from the requirement to register before they remove the waste and should obtain a written confirmation from the producer that the premises will be exempt at the time of collection. The carrier should also consider how much they are collecting and how often.