Maritime Coastguard Agency
Changes to how people can dispose of redundant flares
HM Coastguard has stopped receiving and disposing of expired or unwanted flares from private individuals. Now, people will need to pay to use facilities provided by private businesses to dispose of their flares.
The Green Blues environmental facilities map from British Marine and the Royal Yachting Association provides contact details of disposal service providers.
If you want to offer flare disposal facilities at your business
If your business is already able to dispose of or collect marine distress flares for disposal you can register to join the Green Blue environmental facilities map. Private individuals will then be able to contact you directly to arrange disposal of their flares.
Businesses like chandlers, marinas, yachting and boating clubs, charities working in pleasure vessel activities, or recycling and waste management businesses may also want to offer the service.
Setting up a flare disposal service
There are two levels of service a business may be able to offer.
A receipt service
A business can, by arrangement, receive a limited number of flares from private individuals and store them on site until they can be collected and taken away by a contracted third-party disposal service provider. Any business wishing to offer this service needs to have sufficient and appropriate storage space and facilities to hold more than 5kg of hazard type 3 or 4 as listed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). This is approximately 60 handheld flares, depending on the type and condition of the flares.
A complete disposal service
A business may be able to offer a full disposal service. It would need to have the space and facilities to receive flares directly from private individuals, store them and then destroy them in line with regulations around handling explosives.
For more information on offering either of these services see MIN 687 Changes to how individuals can dispose of marine flares.
Safety requirements
Staff engaged in either level of service must be appropriately trained and given the right equipment to complete the task. The business will also need to meet certain safety standards to be able to offer any flare disposal service. For more information on these standards, visit the HSEs explosives guidance.
Businesses may set their own fees to cover the cost of providing flare disposal services.
If you have flares to dispose of, please see our guidance for information on how to dispose of flares to find out how and where you can do this safely.