Air Quality and Pollution information for Businesses
This page gives advice to businesses on their duties with regards to air quality.
Bonfires
Businesses must comply with the law on waste management in deciding how to dispose of their waste. It is generally unlawful to burn waste arising from a business, but there are some exemptions. Further advice should be sort from the Environment Agency.
It is an offence to emit dark smoke from industrial or trade premises, or any site being used by business. The Council will investigate incidences of dark smoke with a view to formal proceedings against offenders.
Chimneys and Stacks
Some new chimneys for large combustion appliances require approval of their height to prevent high levels of pollution at ground level. Please contact the council for further details.
Environmental Permits
Certain industrial processes require environmental permits. These are regulated by either the Environment Agencyor Mendip District Council, usually depending on the size of the site and the pollutants produced. If you are operating any of the processes in the table below you may need to apply for an environmental permit. Application forms are available through the documents section of this page. Please note that there are separate application forms for dry cleaners, petrol stations,vehicle refinishers and small waste oil burners.
| Animal and Vegetable Processing | Combustion and Incineration | Minerals & Timber | Metals | Organic Chemicals | Petroleum and Powder Coating | Solvents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal feed compound | Animal carcass incineration | Asbestos processes | Copper and copper alloy processes | Fibre reinforced plastics | Bitumen and tar processes | Adhesive coating including footwear manufacturing |
| Drying of vegetable matter | Boilers and furnaces 20-50 MW | Cement processes | Electrical, crucible and reverberatory furnaces | Coating powder manufacture | Coating and recoating of aircraft and aircraft components | |
| Fish meal processing | Combustion of waste derived fuel | China and ball clay processes | Furnaces for the extraction of non-ferrous metal from scrap | Powder coating including sherardizing and vitreous enamelling dry | Coating and recoating of rail vehicles | |
| Hide and skin processing | Compression ignition engines 20-50 MW | Heavy clay good s and refractory processes | Hot and cold blast cupolas, and rotary furnaces | Storage, unloading and loading petrol at terminals | Coating and respraying of road vehicles and trailers | |
| Maggot breeding | Crematoria | Coal, coke, coal products and petroleum coke | Hot dip galvanizing processes | Unloading of petrol into storage at petrol stations | Coating in drum manufacturing and reconditioning | |
| Mushroom substrate | Gas turbines 20-50 MW | Di-isocyanate processes | Iron, steel and non-ferrous metal foundry processes | Coating of metal and plastic | ||
| Pet food processing (wet or dry) | Waste oil burners <0.4 MW or 0.4 to 3 MW | Exfoliation of vermiculite and expansion of perlite | Melting magnesium and its alloys | Coating materials manufacture | ||
| Sausage casings | Lead glass, glass frit and enamel frit manufacturing | Melting and producing aluminium and its alloys | Coil coating | |||
| Tobacco processes | Lime processes | Metal decontamination processes | Dry cleaning | |||
| Mineral drying and cooling | Metal and other thermal spraying processes | Film coating | ||||
| Mobile crushing and screening | Surface treatment of metal processes | Formulation and finishing of pharmaceutical products | ||||
| Plaster processes | Zinc and zinc alloy processes | Leather finishing | ||||
| Polishing or etching glass or glass products using hydrofluoric acid | Paint application in vehicle manufacturing | |||||
| Quarry processes | Paper coating | |||||
| Roadstone coating processes | Printing | |||||
| Timber and wood based products manufacture | Rubber | |||||
Surface cleaning | ||||||
Textile and fabric coating and finishing | ||||||
Timber and wood-based product chemical treatment | ||||||
Vegetable oil extraction and fat and oil refining | ||||||
Wood coating |
