Permitted waste sites in the UK

Hazardous waste transfer stations

Permitted sites that can take in hazardous waste, hold it and send it on to a treatment or disposal site.

470 sites

Clinical waste transfer stations

Permitted sites handling clinical and healthcare waste on its way to treatment or incineration.

100 sites

Waste transfer stations

Permitted sites that take in household, commercial and industrial waste, sort it and move it on. The usual destination for a skip or a tipper load.

1,563 sites

Household waste recycling centres

The council tips, formally household waste amenity sites, where the public can drop off waste themselves.

684 sites

Metal recycling sites and vehicle dismantlers

Scrap metal yards, mixed metal recycling sites and the authorised treatment facilities that take end of life vehicles.

1,994 sites

WEEE treatment sites

Sites permitted to treat waste electrical and electronic equipment.

13 sites

Materials recycling facilities

Sites that sort mixed dry recycling back into separate materials.

186 sites

Composting and biological treatment

Green waste composting, in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion and other biological treatment.

363 sites

Soil and aggregate treatment

Sites treating contaminated soil, and sites turning construction and demolition waste back into soils and aggregates.

283 sites

Waste treatment facilities

Physical and chemical treatment sites, both hazardous and non-hazardous, where waste is changed before it moves on.

1,882 sites

Energy recovery and incineration

Incinerators, landfill gas engines and sites capturing biogas.

26 sites

Landfill sites

Permitted landfill, from inert and non-biodegradable cells to household waste and co-disposal sites.

584 sites

Land recovery and spreading

Depositing waste on land as a recovery operation, land spreading, and the restoration or improvement of land.

701 sites

Mining waste operations

Quarry and mine sites permitted for the waste their own extraction produces.

322 sites

Mobile treatment plant

Permits for plant that moves between sites rather than sitting at one address.

113 sites

Registered waste exemptions

Low risk activities registered as an exemption instead of holding a full environmental permit.

30 sites

Other permitted sites

Permitted sites whose activity does not fall into any of the groups above, including lagoons, storage facilities and boreholes.

2,921 sites