What is Trade Waste?

Trade waste, or industrial waste, is any wastewater discharged from your business or site to the Sewer Infrastructure provided by the Local Authority. This discharge is other than standard waste from office facilities or staff amenities.

If you're disposing waste to the local authority wastewater system, you need to ensure you have a trade waste permit because not all wastes are suitable for their networked system. If the wrong waste goes down the sewer system, it could cause serious harm to public health and the environment.

When considering trade waste, the first applications that come to mind usually involve oil, petrol, perhaps hazardous chemicals. However, the list of industries and businesses that produce trade waste can be surprising, with varied applications not typically associated as trade waste.