Advice for mobile food vans

You must apply for liquid trade waste approval.

Some examples of situations where you require liquid trade waste approval include (but are not limited to): 

If you have installed a grease trap to pre-treat your wastewater before it is discharged to Canberra's wastewater network. 
In this situation:

• You will require hydraulic (plumbing) plans and a plumber for installation. 

If you're using an existing grease trap at a food business that has already received an approval from our team. 

In this situation:

• Any discharge from your mobile food van must occur outside of the business’s hours of operation.
• The business must apply to vary their current liquid trade waste approval to include your mobile food van’s waste. 
  Once this is done, you can apply for your approval.
• You must keep a log recording when and how much waste you discharge from your mobile food van.

What do we need from you?
If you are planning to discharge liquid trade waste to Canberra's wastewater network, you must apply for approval.

We strongly recommend you complete our application checklist before following the link below, because your progress cannot be saved.

You must advise us of your wastewater management plan.

This would be necessary if, for example, you:

• Purchased an IBC (intermediate bulk container) as your waste management solution. In this situation, the waste collected within your IBC would then need to be collected by an appropriately licensed contractor for off-site disposal.

Please note: when disposing of waste outside of Canberra's wastewater network, you must comply with both ACT Health and ACT EPA compliance requirements for wastewater management.

What do we need from you?
You must advise us of your wastewater management plan via email. We will then respond to your email with written acknowledgement.

While no formal liquid trade waste approval is required, you will likely need email confirmation from us to progress through ACT Health’s regulatory requirements.

Your email must provide answers to the following criteria:

1. The mobile food van owner’s name, phone number and email address.

2. The storage address for the mobile food van.

3. Your mobile food van’s business name.

4. Example site(s) where your van might operate and the duration at each site.

5. Any business activities generating liquid trade waste 
(e.g., what/where/how is food being cooked).

6. The cleaning process for cooking equipment, utensils and storage containers.

7. How the wastewater will be disposed.

8. Whether a liquid storage container (e.g., IBC) will be used, and if so where will it be stored/kept clean/secured and how frequently it will be emptied.

9. If your liquid trade waste is being disposed of off-site (such as when using an IBC), you must provide the name of whichever appropriately licensed contractor will be carting the waste.

10. Any other relevant information we should be aware of.

Please submit your answers to: trade.waste@iconwater.com.au.