Guidance

Storing and dewatering street sweeping waste: RPS 65

Updated 1 August 2023

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dewatering-of-street-sweepings/dewatering-street-sweepings-rps-65

This regulatory position statement (RPS) does not change your legal requirement to have an environmental permit for a waste operation when you store and dewater street sweeping waste.

However, the Environment Agency will not normally take enforcement action against you if you do not comply with this legal requirement provided that:

  • your activity meets the description set out in this RPS

  • you comply with the conditions set out in this RPS

In addition your activity must not cause (or be likely to cause) pollution of the environment or harm to human health, and must not:

  • cause a risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals

  • cause a nuisance through noise or odours

  • adversely affect the countryside or places of special interest

Activity this RPS applies to

This RPS applies to the storage and dewatering of street sweeping waste before it is collected for recovery or disposal elsewhere.

This RPS can only be used by:

  • local authorities and National Highways to store and dewater street sweepings they produce
  • contractors employed by a local authority or National Highways who carry out street sweeping and deposit the waste at a site controlled by the contractor

This RPS cannot be used:

  • by contractors taking street sweeping waste to a site controlled by local authorities or National Highways
  • for gully and interceptor wastes

Conditions you must comply with

You must:

  • store and dewater street sweepings on an impermeable surface with sealed drainage
  • have control over the street sweepings and the place where they are stored
  • store and dewater in a secure place
  • tanker away liquid waste to an authorised waste treatment site or legally discharge to foul sewer
  • keep records for 2 years to show that you have complied with this RPS and make these records available to the Environment Agency on request

You must not:

  • store more than 50 cubic meters of street sweepings
  • store more than 1,000 litres of dewatered liquid waste
  • store street sweepings for longer than 3 months from when they arrived on the site

Things to note

A sealed drainage system is impermeable. It does not leak. It ensures that all liquids:

  • run off the surface through the sealed drainage system
  • are collected in a sealed sump

Secure means that the waste cannot escape, and unauthorised people cannot access it.

This RPS relates to an activity that the Environment Agency considers is potentially suitable to be an exemption under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

When you must check back

The Environment Agency will review this RPS by 1 July 2026.

The Environment Agency can withdraw or amend this regulatory position before the review date if they consider it necessary. This includes where the activity that this RPS relates to has not changed.

You will need to check back from time to time, including at and before the review date, to see if this RPS still applies.

This RPS remains in force until it is removed from GOV.UK or is otherwise identified as having been withdrawn.

If you cannot comply with this RPS

If you operate under this RPS but can no longer comply with it, you must stop the activity to which this RPS relates and must tell the Environment Agency immediately. Email wastetreatment@environment-agency.gov.uk and include storage and dewatering of road sweepings: RPS 65 in the subject.

Contact the Environment Agency

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone 03708 506 506

Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

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