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.