Material facility (MF)
| 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 facilities (MF) are required to comply with the Materials Recovery Code. The code sets out sampling and reporting requirements for in scope materials facilities.
Material facilities are likely to be in scope if they receive or are likely to receive 1000 tonnes or more of single stream or mixed dry recyclable waste (often referred to as DMR) in any reporting year, and either receives dry recyclable waste from one or more suppliers and sorts it into output material or receives and consolidates dry recyclable waste from two or more suppliers.
You may be subject to different sampling and reporting requirements depending on what type of facility you operate.
Accordingly, MF operators must ensure they comply with the requirements of the code, otherwise they may be deemed to be non-compliant with their authorisation 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 MF sampling data is a separate licence requirement.
Operators are asked to submit their MF sampling and reporting data in Excel format using the standard MF return form and guidance provided below. Please check regularly for any updates:
(1.6mb)
(650kb)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 of Practice
The Scottish Government's Code of Practice on sampling and reporting at materials facilities replaces the 2015 Code.
From 1st April 2025 the 2015 Code, associated data return and all accompanying guidance is obsolete. Anyone involved in sampling and reporting under the Code should be familiarised with this guidance and aware it supersedes any related to the 2015 Code.