Commercial trade wastewater
Accepting trade wastewater to sewer is an operational, environmental and safety risk for us. If you discharge trade wastewater, you must have our written approval.
Trade wastewater includes:
- wastewater produced at industrial or commercial premises
- wastewater transported by vehicle, including septic effluent
- wastewater from ships and boats
- run-off from contaminated surface water and groundwater.
Our requirements and conditions for accepting trade wastewater help us:
- protect people working in and around the wastewater system
- protect receiving environments (rivers and oceans)
- protect the wastewater system and treatment plants from damage
- process wastewater and produce recycled water and good quality biosolids
- encourage waste minimisation, cleaner production and water efficient practices.
What you need to know
Commercial trade wastewater includes:
- greasy wastewater from commercial cooking
- contaminated wastewater from mechanical workshops, car washes and laundries.
You discharge commercial trade wastewater if your business activities are listed here.
Business group |
Activities |
|---|---|
Retail food |
Restaurants, take-away food outlets, function centres, hospital and nursing home kitchens, caterers, butchers, delicatessens and retail bakeries |
Automotive |
Service stations, panel beaters and spray painters, car detailers, car wash - hand wash and pressure spray, car wash <12kl/day, mechanical workshops and auto recyclers |
Commercial laundries |
Laundromats, commercial laundries < 2 megalitres/year, and hospital, nursing home and hotel laundries |
Photographic |
Minilabs, medical facilities using x-rays, graphic arts and professional photographic laboratories |
Shopping centres with centralised pre-treatment |
Shopping centres with shared pre-treatment other than grease traps |
Other |
Municipal swimming pools/aquatic centres, cooling tower and boiler blowdown |
For a complete list of commercial trade wastewater processes, read our Commercial customers - trade wastewater fees and charges fact sheet.
If your business process is not listed, contact businesscustomers@sydneywater.com.au.
Retail food businesses
Trade wastewater from retail food businesses contains organic material that can cause odours and accelerated corrosion in our sewers.
- Solids can cause blockages in our system, upset our treatment processes and damage our pumps.
- Oils and grease can cause blockages and affect our treatment processes.
| Source | Possible effect |
|---|---|
Solids |
|
Oils and grease |
|
Biochemical oxygen demand |
|
High temperature |
|
Motor trades
Trade wastewater from the motor industry contains petroleum hydrocarbons, solids, metals and chlorinated solvents and phenols. These substances can:
- affect the health and safety of our workers
- damage our wastewater system
- upset our treatment processes and our ability to produce good quality recycled water and biosolids.
Some of these chemicals have the potential to cause explosions.
| Source | Possible effect |
|---|---|
Petroleum hydrocarbons |
|
Road grime, underbody mud and engine grit |
|
Metals |
|
Chlorinated solvents |
|
If your business is listed below, you have approval to discharge trade wastewater as a 'deemed process'. However, you must continue to meet pre-treatment, backflow prevention and other requirements.
You must only use pre-treatment items that are approved for use within our area of operations. To find out if pre-treatment items are approved for use, read about grease traps and treatment equipment.
No trade wastewater fees and charges apply.
Deemed process |
Pre-treatment requirements |
|---|---|
Beautician, doctor's surgery, funeral parlour, school (ceramic and pottery room), venetian blind cleaning |
No pre-treatment required |
Aquariums |
Must meet Australian quarantine requirements |
Building construction - slab formation |
No discharge to sewer. Pipework with open connectors to be capped at all times or have an internal device fitted |
Mobile carpet cleaners |
20 micron filter unit |
Cooling towers |
Discharge not to exceed 500 litres/day |
Dental surgery |
Amalgam trap and segregation of waste amalgam |
Dental technician |
Plaster trap |
Dog groomer, pet shop (retail) |
In-floor bucket trap, no organophosphates pesticides to sewer |
Dry cleaners |
Solvent recovery unit |
Florist |
No herbicide to sewer |
Hairdresser |
In-floor bucket trap and in-sink bucket trap |
Optical lens grinding |
Solids settlement pit |
Residential garbage bin wash area |
|
Residential vehicle wash bay |
|
Sanitary bin washing |
Screening and temperature control (less than 38oC) |
Swimming pool (residential, hotel, hospital, club) |
No open areas discharging rainwater to sewer |
Train platform and internal carriage cleaning |
|
If you're discharging trade wastewater and you're not listed as a deemed process, you must have our written approval. If you can't find it or you're not sure if you have our written approval, contact businesscustomers@sydneywater.com.au.
If you don't have written approval and you're discharging trade waste, you must apply at Sydney Water Tap in™.
Applying for permission to discharge commercial trade wastewater is simple.
- Complete an application for connection to discharge trade wastewater at Sydney Water Tap in™.
- We may contact you to discuss your application, collect additional information or arrange to meet you at your propery if necessary.
- We'll assess the outcome of your application within 21 days and notify you of any requirements.
You must not apply on behalf of someone else without their permission. We'll send copies of all written approvals to the applicant and property owner.
You must tell us if you change the business activities on your site or if you want to cancel your permission to discharge trade wastewater.
You must have our approval to discharge trade wastewater.
Our conditions for accepting your trade wastewater are explained in your trade wastewater permit. You may need to install and maintain specific items of pre-treatment suited to your business activities.
Trade waste fees and charges apply.
Deemed processes
Deemed processes are processes:
- we assess as low risk
- that discharge small volumes of trade wastewater to sewer.
If you're a deemed process customer, you may discharge to sewer without negotiating a permit if you install specific items of pre-treatment.
Commercial customers
Commercial customers have standard commercial processes. We've defined standard commercial processes in our Commercial customers - trade wastewater fees and charges fact sheet.
Commercial customers may have to treat wastewater before discharging it to sewer. You must discuss your pre-treatment requirements with us.
You must only use pre-treatment items that are listed for use within our area of operations. To find out what's listed, read about:
- listed pre-treatment for food businesses
- listed pre-treatment for the auto industry
- listed pre-treatment for other businesses.
Activities |
Minimum pre-treatment requirements |
|---|---|
|
Installation set up with coalescing plate separator |
|
|
|
Installation set up with coalescing plate separator |
Sink-to-sewer waste disposal units
We don't allow sink-to-sewer waste disposal units, in-sink food waste disposal units or garbage grinders in business premises.
Use of additives
Adding solvents, enzymes, mutant or natural bacteria, odour control agents and pesticides to grease traps or pre-treatment systems is not permitted.
Medical waste
What can be discharged to sewer
Liquid waste, including faeces and body fluids from:
- hospitals
- clinics
- offices or surgeries of a medical doctor
- dentists
- convalescent or nursing homes
- medical or veterinary laboratories
- health transport facilities
- other medical facilities.
What must not be discharged to sewer
Solid waste from:
- hospitals
- clinics
- offices or surgeries of a medical doctor
- dentists
- convalescent or nursing homes
- medical or veterinary laboratories
- health transport facilities
- other medical facilities.
Solid waste includes hypodermic needles, syringes, instruments, utensils, swabs, dressings, bandages, any disposable paper or plastic items, any portion of human or animal anatomy or any items that have been macerated.
Discharge from nuclear medicine units
Hospitals or veterinary premises with nuclear medicine units must ensure wastewater is discharged to sewer at a controlled rate that we determine. We may:
- require you to install delay holding tanks
- restrict days and time of discharge
- require you to sample your trade wastewater.
We assess each application. Your site specific conditions will be outlined in your individual commercial permit.
Inspections
Our representatives will inspect your site and pre-treatment.
Our business customer representatives may enter your site to ensure your activities are in line with your permit. Our representatives may:
- collect samples of your trade wastewater at any time, on any day
- install and use on-line monitoring.
No one on the premises may impede or delay our representatives, except to ensure relevant safety precautions are in place.
Most commercial trade wastewater customers need to install and maintain pre-treatment items.
Choose the appropriate pre-treatment for your business. You must only use items that are listed for use within our area of operations. Find out more about grease traps and treatment equipment.
If you're a manufacturer or pre-treatment supplier and want to have an item listed for use within our area of operations, you must submit a Trade waste pre-treatment listing request.
Trade waste fees and charges cover the additional costs of managing and treating trade wastewater. There are two types of charges:
- management fees
- waste quality charges.
Go to our fees page to find out more.
Deemed processes
Fees and charges don't apply to deemed processes.
Wastesafe is an electronic tracking system we use to monitor the generation, collection, transport and disposal of grease trap waste. If you have a grease trap, you must:
- arrange for a waste transporter to clean it (pump it out) at the frequency we set
- contact your Waste contractor to arrange a service
- contact an authorised transporter if you need to change your transporter.
Charges
Waste contractor charges
Your waste contractor will charge you directly to:
- clean your grease trap
- transport your grease trap waste to a treatment facility
- treat your grease trap waste at the treatment facility.
Sydney Water charges
We'll charge you a fixed liquid waste trap (grease trap) charge of $27.06 a quarter for each of your grease traps.
If you miss a scheduled pump-out, we may apply a missed service (pump out) charge of:
- $298.27 for grease traps 2,000 litres or less
- $596.56 for grease traps larger than 2,000 litres.
Wastesafe transporters
Your Wastesafe transporter will tell us when you've contacted them to arrange services.
What do you need to do? Contact an authorised transporter who will enter the change online on your behalf.