Waste Management Permits — Two Paths: Decision or Registration
Waste management activities in Georgia are regulated by the Waste Management Code and, depending on the nature of the activity, require one of two different administrative paths: some activities are subject to the environmental decision, while others fall under the considerably lighter registration. If you plan to collect, transport, process or temporarily store waste, this page explains which category your activity falls into, which tonnage thresholds serve as the dividing lines, and where the issued acts are recorded.
This distinction has practical value. The environmental decision means a full administrative procedure with assessment and documentation, while registration is a light form for small scale operators. Knowing both paths precisely determines how quickly and at what cost your company can start operating — and choosing the wrong path, or assuming no act is needed at all, is one of the most common compliance failures in the waste sector.
Which Activities Are Subject to the Environmental Decision
Of the activities related to waste processing, those provided for by the Environmental Assessment Code are subject to the environmental decision. The list of documents to be submitted to the competent administrative authority, and the requirements for their content, are determined by the Waste Management Code, the Environmental Assessment Code and the subordinate normative acts adopted on their basis.
An important possibility applies: if a person carries out more than one such activity and these activities are substantially connected, that person is entitled to request a single environmental decision. In addition to the information provided for by the Environmental Assessment Code, the authority must be presented with the type of waste to be processed by code and name, the quantity and origin of the waste, the codes and description of recovery or disposal operations in accordance with the relevant annex to the Code, the means and equipment to be used together with their capacity, and the information on the planned landfill to the extent established by legislation.
Registration — the Path for Small Scale Operators
The following waste management activities are subject to registration: the collection or transportation of waste; the construction and operation of a temporary storage facility for more than 50 tonnes of non hazardous waste; the pre processing of up to 100 tonnes per year of non hazardous waste; the construction and operation of a temporary storage facility for not less than 2 and not more than 10 tonnes of hazardous waste; the construction and operation of a waste transfer station; the recovery or disposal of up to 10 tonnes per year of non hazardous waste; and the waste management activity provided for by the relevant annex to the Environmental Assessment Code which, on the basis of a screening decision, was not subjected to the environmental impact assessment procedure.
The tonnage thresholds are the dividing lines. For example, if your enterprise plans the pre processing of up to 100 tonnes per year of non hazardous waste, registration suffices; a volume exceeding that threshold moves into the sphere of the environmental decision. For hazardous waste the registration corridor is narrow — not less than 2 and not more than 10 tonnes — and activity outside this corridor requires a heavier administrative form. The procedure and conditions for the registration of collection, transportation, pre processing and temporary storage of waste are determined by a resolution of the Government of Georgia. Careful volume accounting at the planning stage is therefore essential, because the tonnage figures stated in the application define the legal regime of the whole operation.
The Registry — Where Decisions and Registrations Are Recorded
The environmental decisions and registrations issued for the activities provided for by the Code are recorded in the waste database in the manner established by the Code. This means that your act — both the decision and the registration — is fixed in a public system, and the waste database becomes the single reference point for who is conducting which activity.
The existence of the registry creates transparency in the market: partners, municipalities and control authorities can verify the status of an operator, while for the operator itself the entry in the registry is not a burden but rather evidence of its legitimacy. After obtaining a registration or a decision, the operator should therefore verify the correctness of its own entry in the database, because errors in the registry — a wrong waste code, an outdated address or a misstated capacity — propagate into every subsequent interaction with the state.
The 2026 Changes — Integrated Permit and a Unified Registry
The current rules change from 1 September 2026: activities provided for by the Environmental Assessment Code are subject to the environmental decision, while activities provided for by the Law of Georgia on Industrial Emissions are subject to the integrated environmental permit. Where more than one substantially connected activity is carried out, the person is entitled to obtain a single environmental decision or integrated permit.
The registry is unified as well: environmental decisions, integrated environmental permits and registrations of activities will be recorded together in the waste database in the manner established by the Code. Operators should use the period remaining before the changes to assess which regime their activity will fall under under the new rules and to prepare applications in good time — especially those whose activity may fall within the scope of the industrial emissions law.
How to Plan the Permitting Path in Practice
The first step is classification of the activity: determine the type of waste (hazardous or non hazardous), the annual volume and the type of operation — collection, transportation, pre processing, temporary storage, recovery or disposal. On the basis of these three parameters it becomes clear whether registration serves you or an environmental decision is required. Boundary situations deserve special attention: volumes approaching 50 tonnes for temporary storage, 100 tonnes for pre processing or the 2 to 10 tonne corridor for hazardous waste should be documented with a margin, because crossing a threshold changes the regime.
The second step is preparation of the documentation: for the environmental decision the application is accompanied by waste codes, origin, classification of operations and a technical description; for registration the procedure and conditions established by government resolution apply. The third step is planning against the 2026 changes: if the realisation of the project crosses 1 September, the application strategy must be adapted to both regimes, so that the documentation prepared today does not become obsolete the day after tomorrow.