Industrial waste

The subordinate legislation – the Environment Protection Regulations and Environment Reference Standard – has been made by the Governor in Council and came into effect on 1 July 2021 with the Act.

If your business generates, transports or receives industrial waste, you have duties:

under the general environmental duty, relating to your business activity

to manage the waste and where it goes.

Industrial waste includes waste from:

commercial, industrial and trade activities, or from laboratories
household waste once it is gathered at a waste facility (for example transfer station, landfill)
accommodation, cafes and restaurants
building and road construction, renovations, demolitions and repairs

primary industries including agriculture, forestry and fishing.

We will apply strict penalties if you:

dump or abandon industrial waste

don’t check your waste will be managed appropriately, when you give it to others.

Industry obligations

Duties if you provide industrial waste to others

You must take reasonable steps to identify and classify your waste.
You must take all reasonable steps to make sure your waste is taken to a lawful place. For example, by engaging a reputable contractor to transport and dispose of your waste.
If your business produces industrial waste and you are going to give this waste to others, either for disposal or resource recovery, there are specific requirements you must meet.

Duties if you deposit industrial waste

If you deposit, or dispose of industrial waste, it must be at a ‘lawful place’. This includes sorting, recovery and disposal facilities. If you receive or deposit industrial waste, it is your responsibility to know whether it is a lawful place.

Duties if you receive industrial waste

If you receive industrial waste, you must be a lawful place.

Duties if you deal with ‘priority’ industrial waste

If you are dealing with a ‘priority’ waste, which covers hazardous wastes, you have additional duties.

How to manage industrial waste

To meet the waste duties, businesses must:

take reasonable steps to identify and classify the waste
give the next person handling the waste enough information to transport it to a lawful place
make sure that the place receiving the waste is a lawful place

not deposit the waste at a lawful place without consent from the permission holder, or manager of the premises.

Your ‘reasonable steps’ may be different depending on the type of waste and its risk of mismanagement and dumping. Higher risk wastes require more attention and verification.

Find out more about:

Classification. Industrial waste must be identified and classified. This makes it clear what duties apply to the management of the waste. Read the Guide to classifying industrial waste (publication 1968).

Transportation. You must contain your waste safely during transport. Some wastes have specific containment, isolation, vehicle permission and tracking requirements.
Lawful place. Industrial waste may only go a lawful place.

What is a lawful place?

There are several ways for a place to be a lawful place. These are proportionate to the level of risk and include places:

authorised by a permission to undertake resource recovery or landfill disposal activities

using waste in a low-risk activity deemed to be a lawful place by the Regulations

using waste in a low-risk activity covered by a declaration of use

A wide range of waste recovery activities will need a permission (licence, permit or registration) to become a lawful place. This includes waste and resource recovery activities as well as disposal to landfill. Resource recovery means it can be recycled, repurposed or used in a different way.