This guidance is for waste operations and A1 installations operating under an environmental permit. It is not for sites operating under a waste exemption. You usually need to change vary your environmental permit before you make changes to your permitted activities. However, you may not need to apply to vary your permit when you carry out research activity or trials if you follow this guidance. This guidance applies to all trials, but current trials may relate to
Examples of pilot tests are described in post-combustion carbon dioxide capture best available techniques. Theres separate guidance for carrying out research or trials with waste at sites without an environmental permit. When the research and development exemption for installations applies
The Environmental Permitting Regulations contain an exemption for installations or plant used solely for research, development or testing of new products or processes. The Environment Agency considers that at existing installations, this will apply to stand-alone research and development activities. This exemption for research or trial activity does not apply to
If you are not sure whether the exemption applies to you, or if you do not operate a permitted installation, please contact the Environment Agency. Also consider that other regulations may apply. For example, the Control of Major Accident Hazards COMAH Regulations and hazardous waste controls. When your proposal is within your existing permit conditions
Your research or trial proposal may already be possible under your current permit conditions. This is most likely where there are
You should discuss all process changes with the Environment Agency. When your permit conditions allow you to seek approval for the proposal
Permits for installations and waste operations contain a condition requiring you to use specified operating techniques. These are set out in the permit. Some permits also contain conditions requiring you to comply with specified approved plans including working plans for waste operations. These relate to
These permit conditions allow you to ask for approval from the Environment Agency to make changes to the specified operating techniques or approved management plans. You will need to pay the Environment Agency for their time reviewing these requests. They will only consider minor changes. Check your other permit conditions
You will have to comply with all other permit conditions, for example
Check the location and duration or your activity
The research or trial activity must be
It must not be conducted as part of your normal commercial operations. Prepare your proposal
You must tell your Environment Agency area officer that you intend to carry out the research or trial activity in line with this guidance. Contact the Environment Agencys main contact centre if you do not know who your area officer is. You do not have to give the Environment Agency the precise identity of commercially sensitive materials to operate under this exemption. But you must identity any emissions to the environment. Prepare the following information for your proposal. Include a brief description of the purpose of the activities and techniques you will use. Describe how you expect these changes to affect environmental performance. Include storage arrangements for materials used in the activities and emissions to the environment. Describe how you will measure them and the expected quantities. Describe wastes generated from the activities and how you will handle them.
Include an explanation of
Include an environmental risk assessment to show
Include the proposed duration of the activities. How the Environment Agency will respond
Your area officer will respond to your request in one of the following 3 ways. They will agree that your proposal meets the requirements of this guidance. This will include an expiry date, after which you will need to contact the Environment Agency again. They may also require you to report regularly on the activities, including emissions, to support the ongoing approval. They will request more information to support your request.
They will tell you that your proposal requires you to vary your permit. When you complete the research or trial activity
You must either
You should send a report to your area officer on the performance of the activities during the research or trials. This may help if you apply in future to vary your permit to carry out the activities on a commercial scale. Even if your proposal is approved through your existing permit, you are still responsible for complying with other permissions that may be affected by the change. If you cannot meet the conditions
If you cannot meet the conditions of this guidance, you must apply to vary your environmental permit before you make changes to your permitted activities.