Material recovery facilities (MRF)
| Quarter | Reporting period | Date for submission to SEPA |
| 1 | 1 January - 31 March | 30 April |
| 2 | 1 April - 30 June | 31 July |
| 3 | 1 July - 30 September | 31 October |
| 4 | 1 October - 31 December | 31 January |
Material recovery facilities (MRF) are required to comply with the Materials Recovery Code. The code sets out sampling and reporting requirements that apply to anyone holding a Waste Management Licence or Pollution Prevention Control (PPC) permit for a MRF that receives, or is likely to receive, more than 1,000 tonnes of mixed or separately collected dry recyclable waste in any reporting year. Accordingly, MRF licence or permit holders must ensure they comply with the requirements of the code, otherwise they may be deemed to be non-compliant with their licence or permit conditions.
This does not replace the Licensed Site Returns guidance and associated return form which are available below. There is still an obligation to report Licensed Site Return data to SEPA, the submission of MRF sampling data is a separate licence requirement.
Operators are asked to submit their MRF sampling and reporting data in Excel format using the standard MRF return form and guidance provided below. Please check regularly for any updates:
- MRF return form
(1.5mb) - MRF guidance
(700kb)
Further information is available to help you complete your submissions on our Recycling webpage.
Recyclate quality data are published in an interactive tool on a quarterly schedule.
Materials Recovery Code Update
The Materials Recovery Code Update summarises the quality of recyclables coming out of Scotland's in scope MRFs.
Previous reports: