Guidance

Storing and bulking sweeping waste by the waste producer: RPS 65

Updated 18 August 2025

Applies to England

This regulatory position statement (RPS) does not change your legal requirement to have an environmental permit where one is required.  

However, the Environment Agency will not normally take enforcement action against you if you do not comply with these legal requirements 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 sweeping waste that is stored and bulked by the waste producer before collection for onward recovery and disposal elsewhere.

This RPS can only be used for:

Public highway sweepings (20 03 03)

• local authorities and National Highways to store and bulk sweepings they have produced at a site they control
• contractors employed by a local authority or National Highways to carry out the sweeping and then store and bulk the sweepings at a site the contractor controls

Construction site sweepings (17 05 04 or 17 09 04)

• contractors employed by a construction site to carry out the sweeping and then store and bulk the sweepings at a site the contractor controls

This RPS cannot be used:

• to store sweeping waste at a site not controlled by the producer
• for gully and interceptor wastes
• for leaf and grass cutting wastes collected separately from public highway sweepings

Waste codes at permitted sites

This RPS also allows permitted facilities that accept sweepings coded as 20 03 03 to also accept construction sites sweepings, coded as 17 05 04 or 17 09 04, where these waste codes are not in your environmental permit.

Conditions you must comply with

You must:

• store sweepings on an impermeable surface with sealed drainage
• have control over the sweepings and the place where they are stored
• store all wastes in a secure place
• tanker away any liquid that has naturally dewatered from the sweeping waste during storage to an authorised waste treatment site or legally discharge to foul sewer
• keep records for 2 years from the date of the last use of the RPS 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 sweepings at any one time
• store more than 1,000 litres of dewatered liquid waste at any one time
• store sweepings for longer than 3 months from when they arrived on the site

Things to note

Sweepings (also known as street cleansing materials) are most commonly associated with the cleaning of the public highway network, private industrial land and town centres by road sweepers. They will contain mixed materials including leaves, grit, litter, glass, paper, plastics and micro plastic from tyre crumb.

Sweepings can also be produced when roads at construction and demolition sites are swept. Sweepings from these sources tend to consist mainly of soil, sand and gravel.

Natural dewatering of sweeping waste is when liquid has separated from the sweeping waste during storage, for example in a bay.

Dewatering alone of sweepings does not alter the waste classification code as it does not change the characteristics of the waste.

We are aware that permitted facilities which accept sweeping wastes currently only have waste code 20 03 03 (street cleansing residues) on their permits. We will update these permits to include waste codes 17 05 04 and 17 09 04 through permit reviews and by updating the current standard rules permits.

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. A change in law would be required for this.

When you must check back

The Environment Agency intends to review this RPS by 31 August 2028.

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.

You can subscribe to email updates about this RPS. These will tell you if the RPS has changed and when it has 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
• tell the Environment Agency immediately by contacting enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk with RPS 65 in the subject

Contact the Environment Agency

If you have any questions about this RPS, email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk with RPS 65 in the subject.