Changes to Waste Management and New Charging Fees for Exemptions

The Environment Agency has a responsibility for preventing pollution to the air, the land and to water.  ‘Waste’ is recognised as a risk factor that can be a cause of pollution to all three of these receptors.  As such the Environment Agency is the regulatory authority over waste produced, used, stored and disposed of.   

For lower risk or smaller amounts of waste, then some activities are allowed to be carried out under what is called an “Exemption” – i.e. within a specific set of rules but ‘exempt’ from the requirement to work under a full Environmental Permit.  Essentially, exemptions provide a less stringent regulatory route for certain types of waste operations.  While less stringent, you are still required to 'register' the exemption with the Environment Agency. 

Waste exemptions are listed for four types of activities: 

1. Storing waste - exemptions S1 – S3. NOTE you may not need an exemption for storing your own waste temporarily or you operate a waste collection point 

2. Treating waste - exemptions T1 - T33.  ‘Treatment’ covers things such as preparing, recovering, sorting or treating certain waste materials, such as waste wood and plant matter. 

3. Using waste - exemptions U1 – U16.  Examples of ‘Using’ waste include end-of-life tyre bales in construction, using mulch, or mixing ash back into soil.  

4. Disposing of waste - exemptions D1 – D8.  Some examples of disposal exemptions include burning certain waste in an incinerator or in the open or the disposal of sanitary waste, agricultural waste and spoil from dredging inland water.  

Previously the requirement was for businesses to register their exemption with the Environment Agency – a free service - and the exemption would be valid for three years.   As part of the government drive to tackle waste crime, from 1^st July 2025 charges have been applied for registering waste exemptions.   

The new charges are made up of a registration charge (£56.00) alongside a compliance charge.  The £56.00 registration charge is paid each time you register one or more exemptions on a site.   It makes sense that if you have a number of exemptions at your site, for example, for storing a waste then treating it, get them aligned in terms of their expiry/renewal dates so on renewal you only have a single registration fee applied.  

The compliance charge applies to each exemption within one of four bands (Upper, 1, 2 or 3) depending on the level risk of pollution involved.  The Upper Band applies to T8, T9 & U16 exemptions only.   

A discount is applied if you register more than one exemption in bands upper, 1 and 2.  You pay the full compliance charge for the most expensive exemption and a discounted charge for every additional exemption in bands upper, 1 and 2.   There is no discount for band 3 exemptions. 

Band	Full charge	Discounted charge
Upper	£1,236.00	£227.00
1	£420.00	£76.00
2	£212.00	£76.00
3	£30.00	No discount

The full list of waste exemption charges and the bands are contained in Annex A: Exemptions and charging bands.   

There are a number of other changes happening to exemptions – for example, the new rules will limit the number and scale of waste exemptions at a single site to prevent many low-risk activities combining into a high-risk operation.    Also, the use of waste exemptions at ‘permitted sites’ will no longer be allowed. 

For more information on the charges and application of the new rules please contact Deb Cairns-Stoll or Nicky Strudwick on 01743 343403 or info@e4environment.co.uk .