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6. Household, commercial and industrial waste transfer station with asbestos storage (no building)

There is a standard rules set for sites without a building accepting less than 5,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

The inputs are limited to non-hazardous and inert wastes and do not include:

  • dusts
  • powders
  • liquids and sludges.

The only hazardous waste permitted is asbestos (subject to 10 tonnes/day limit). Wastes can be:

  • bulked up for disposal or recovery elsewhere, and
  • manually sorted or separated for recovery but these rules do not allow any waste treatment activities such as screening and crushing.

The rules do not allow the storage of more than 50 tonnes of whole or shredded waste vehicle tyres.

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 5,000 tonnes per annum
  • non-hazardous wastes must be stored on impermeable surface with sealed drainage
  • all asbestos wastes must be double bagged and kept within secure lockable containers
  • specified wastes must be stored on hard standing or on impermeable surface with sealed drainage
  • 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 of wastes
  • the activities are not carried out within 200 metres of a European site, Ramsar site or Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). You can find out this information by calling us on 08708 506 506, 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.

Download and check the rules:

  • SR2008No6 - household, commercial and industrial waste transfer station and asbestos storage (no building) Version 2 (PDF, 1.7MB)

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    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.

    Guidance on how to comply with your standard permit

    Guidance is provided in a document called 'Getting the basics right: How to comply with your environmental permit'. This is available to download from our technical guidance notes page.

    Application form and explanatory notes

    The Environmental Permitting Regulations application form has six parts.