Environmental permits

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 enables local authorities to control pollution from certain types of industry (such as coal handlers, bulk cement & petrol filling stations) through applying for a permit.

These permits consist of specific conditions that the operators have to adhere to. Inspections are carried out at the installations to ensure that the permit conditions are not in breach. Processes are divided into 3 categories.

Processes

These concern facilities that are concerned with processes such as:

Refineries
Manufacturing sites
factories
process industries

It also includes certain waste activities:

Disposing of waste to landfill
Hazardous waste treatment
Waste incineration

These are regulated by the Environment Agency

A2 processes include anything that have the potential to cause harm to air, land or water.

They include:

refining gas
metal works, eg producing pig iron or steel, casting ferrous metal, operating forge hammers or applying fused metal coatings
melting non-ferrous metals
surface treating metals and plastic materials
grinding cement clinker or metallurgical slag
glass manufacturing
cellulose fibre reinforced calcium silicate board manufacturing
ceramic product manufacturing, including roof tiles and bricks
non-hazardous or animal waste incineration
manufacturing wood based boards, eg plywood
new tyre manufacturing
disposing of or recycling animal carcasses or waste