Permits are required for establishments and businesses seeking to:

• develop any commercial activity in the purchase and resale of waste, even if the activity does not involve physically acquiring the waste (trading);
• undertake the disposal or recovery of waste on behalf of third parties, even if the activity does not involve physically acquiring the waste (brokering).

Application

The application for a waste trading or broker permit must be accompanied by the following documents:

• an extract from the criminal record (or, failing that, certificates of good conduct and moral character) for:
  • the company manager, and;
  • their deputy;
• a copy of the business permit granted by the Ministry of the Economy or by the competent authority of the EU country in which the company was initially established;
• a recent extract from the Trade and Companies Register (Registre de commerce et des sociétés - RCS) or an equivalent institution;
• a third-party liability insurance certificate, including the amount insured;
• a copy of the company’s articles of association;
• copies of any waste trading or broker permits that the company might possess in other EU countries;
• a list of the waste fractions concerned with their EWC code (European Waste Catalogue);
• for each type of waste concerned, the following information relating to the treatment plant:
  • its contact details;
  • the certificate of receipt of waste;
  • the number and date of its operating permit (if a Luxembourg entity);
  • a copy of its operating permit (if a foreign entity);
  • the treatment of waste undertaken and;
  • the eventual destination of any residual waste there may be.

Application procedure

The applicant should send the waste trading and brokering permit application to the Environment Agency.

The competent division shall inform the applicant of the admissibility of the application within 15 days of its receipt.

Inadmissible applications will be immediately returned to the applicant along with an explanation as to why the application is deemed inadmissible.

If the application is deemed admissible, the competent division has 90 days to assess the completeness of the application and to request the applicant once to send in the missing documents in one batch.

The applicant then has 60 days to finalise the application. The applicant may submit a written request asking for this deadline to be extended by a further 30 days, stating the reason for this extension;

If the applicant fails to provide the missing information within the time permitted, the application shall be considered invalid.

Once the application is deemed complete, the Minister of the Environment has 15 days to:

• grant the waste trading or broker permit;
• send a reasoned refusal to the applicant;
• send a reasoned partial refusal to the applicant.

Permit validity and renewal

Each permit has a validity period, which is generally 5 years.

Should a renewal be required, the applicant should submit an application for the renewal of the waste trading and broker permit to the Environment Agency at least 6 months before the end of the permit's validity period.

Obligations associated with the waste trading or broker permit

Establishments or businesses with a waste trading or broker permit are required to:

• keep a detailed register showing the origin, nature, quantity, destination and the recovery or disposal process of the waste;
• provide the competent division of the Environment Agency with an annual report including the information contained in the register by 31 March each year at the latest;

The collection and transportation of the waste which the business trades or brokers must be carried out by an waste collector/transporter approved in Luxembourg.

Extending the scope of the permit

Should the business wish to trade or broker waste which is not included on the permit already obtained, it may submit an application for the extension of the scope of the waste trading and brokering permit to the competent division.

The documents to be provided concern the new type(s) of waste and are listed on the extension of scope application form.

Related permits

Businesses with a waste trading and brokering permit seeking also to undertake waste collection and/or transportation must submit a waste collection and transportation permit application separately to the competent division.

Each of the permits should refer to the same waste fractions.

In addition, a trading company carrying out waste recovery or disposal must apply for an operating permit for a waste treatment facility.

Procedures

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