Environmentally hazardous activities that require notification, C-activities

To start a company or operation that involves environmentally hazardous activities, you must first make a notification or apply for a permit. It can also apply to when you want to change your business or operation. Activities subject to a permit and notification are divided into A, B and C-activities. 

What is C-activities? 

C-activities are activities or operations that can be expected to have a limited environmental impact and require notification to the municipality. Examples of C-activities can be laundries, workshops, car painting, facilities for food production, handling of chemicals or wood products, agriculture with animal husbandry, or manufacturing of plastic products. 

There are many kinds of businesses that are classified as C-activities and must be notified to the municipality before starting. If you start a notifiable environmentally hazardous activity without reporting it to the municipality, it can lead to fines or imprisonment for unauthorized environmental activities. 

The type of activity that is classified as A, B or C-activities is listed in the environmental permission regulation (SFS 2013:251). There are also environmentally hazardous activities known as U-activities. There are no requirements for either permission or notification for these, but the operation must still comply with the requirements of the Environmental Code. It may also be subject to supervision.

Environmental supervision 

The municipality's environmental committee is the supervisory authority. This means that it checks that you comply with the requirements and rules that exist for your business.

The municipality will have regular contact with you. They sometimes makes visits to ensure that the business meets the requirements of the Environmental Code.

The municipality may charge a supervision fee. The fee is based on the type of business and is determined by the municipality according to special rates. Contact your municipality for more details about the inspection.

Internal audits and monitoring 

Internal auditing means, among other things, that you must know the requirements that laws and other regulations place on your business. You must have good routines for operation, care and maintenance so that laws and requirements are always followed.

You must continuously plan and control activities to counteract and prevent harmful effects. For activities subject to notification and permission, the compliance must be documented in writing.

The municipality can request to take part in the documentation of your internal audits, for example during an inspection visit.

If your business does not meet the requirements 

The municipality can require you to take protective measures if it judges that your activity has too great a negative impact on the environment or human health. This may involve using certain cleaning techniques, not causing too much noise or limiting activities to certain times. Even if you introduce protective measures, the municipality can ban the activity if it deems that the measures are not sufficient.

Demands for protective measures or decisions on bans can come both in connection with the notification and while the business is in operation. The municipality's decision can be appealed to the county administrative board.