Trade waste discharge consent

If your business produces waste water that you wish to dispose of to the sewer, you may need to apply for a discharge consent to do so.

View the Trade Wastes Bylaw.

The following will help you find out if you need consent and the process for obtaining one.

Before you make an application

Before you apply for a trade waste discharge consent or carry out any works for which that consent may be required, we recommend that you speak to us first. You may need us to visit your site and discuss the activity before you make an application. Talking to us first helps identify any potential issues and additional requirements such as amended drainage plans.

Our Trade Waste officers will decide whether a site needs consent based on the nature and scale of the activity undertaken.

Some smaller premises which have just obtained a Code of Compliance Certificate for a relevant building consent can obtain a discarge consent within one month of opening, rather than needing to gain consent before the business opens. However they need to contact us first.

Read the information sheet on disposing of your trade waste (PDF 756 kb)

Make an application

• When you are ready to make an application, you will need to fill in one of the following application forms:
  For complex sites use the Trade Waste application - industrial non-food premises (PDF 268 kb)
  For non-complex sites such as retail food businesses use Trade Waste application - food retail premises (PDF 163 kb)
• If a discharge consent is required, we'll inspect your premises so we can confirm the appropriate category for the consent and identify any issues to be addressed
• We'll then send you an invoice for the consent fee. More complex sites may also be charged an application fee.

Once the application is processed and fees are paid, we'll send you your discharge consent and any associated consent conditions.

Renewal of trade waste discharge consent

To help you renew your existing consent, each year we'll send you an invoice and a filled-out application form. Please note any changes on the form, sign it and return it  with your payment. We'll send you a new discharge consent once we receive your application fee.

How long will it take?

Please ask us how long it's likely to take to process your application, as this can vary depending upon your situation and requirements. We generally process applications within a week, and most consents are issued within a week of payment.

Applications that involve building work won't be processed until after the works are complete and we have inspected the finished premises. We prefer to inspect new premises when we can meet the actual operators.

How much does it cost?

Consent costs will vary between different categories. We sometimes charge an extra an application fee for complex new premises, reflecting the extra inspections we need to undertake.

You won't usually incur user charge fees if you are a minor discharger: the majority of premises only pay a consent fee and that fee varies with the risk their discharge and site management practices create. The greater the risk to Council's systems, then the higher the fee.

You can look up trade waste consent costs on our wastewater fees and charges page.

User Charges

This is our cost recovery mechanism for higher strength and large volume discharge. These charges don't affect premises with relatively small discharges. The vast majority of food businesses and small washpads don't need to pay any trade waste user charges.

Where there's a need for a site to pay them, these charges are billed every two months and are based on volume and strength factors to allow recovery of additional conveyance and treatment costs incurred by Council from that site's wastes. Essentially, the more a site discharges then the more it will need to pay.

You can look up trade waste user charges on the wastewater fees and charges page.