Complex Exemptions

Complex exemptions are waste activities that are exempt from Waste Management Licensing but which require regulation by the Agency to ensure that they do not cause harm to human health or the environment. If you want to operate under the terms of these exemptions you must register with this Department and you must ensure that you will be able to keep to the limits specified within the exemption. Those notifying us of a complex exempt activity also have a number of additional obligations.

Before we can register a complex exemption, you must supply the details of your waste activity on an application form that is specific to that exemption. The form will ask for supporting data to be included and will require a period to assess this before we register the exemptions. These exemptions are chargeable.

The information we ask you to submit as part of this assessment must demonstrate that your proposals will meet the objectives of the exemption and will not cause pollution or harm to human health. The type and quality of information we ask for may require you to seek the help of a technical specialist. Details on this are provided in the Technical Guidance for that exemption.

In most cases, any establishment or undertaking who registers a complex exemption with the agency must be the occupier of the land where it will be undertaken or have the consent of the landowner or occupier.