The restaurant business is one of the fastest growing sectors today. However, many investors often wonder whether they need to carry out environmental registration procedures or not. This is an important question to ensure compliance with the law and avoid unwanted legal risks. Therefore, BIOGENCY will provide detailed information on legal regulations related to this issue.
- Do restaurants need to register environmental records?
- Contents and time of environmental registration
- In what cases are environmental records registration exempted?
Do restaurants need to register environmental records?
Environmental registration is understood as the registration of waste discharge and environmental protection measures (EPM) by investment project owners, production, business and service establishments with state management agencies. In principle, except for cases exempted from environmental registration, projects and production, business and service establishments must register environmental records.
In order to ensure strict compliance with the above regulations, sanctions are also clearly stated in many documents, typically Decree 45/2022/ND-CP on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of environmental protection. Accordingly, projects and production and business service establishments that carry out environmental registration in violation of regulations are at risk of being fined up to 30 million VND for individuals and 60 million VND for organizations.
So do restaurants need to register for environmental records? According to the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and the decrees guiding its implementation, whether a restaurant needs to register for environmental records or not depends on many factors. In particular, the most important aspects are the construction area, total investment capital and the level of waste generation of the facility.
Contents and time of environmental registration
For restaurants that are required to register environmental records, understanding the content and timing of implementation is extremely important to ensure compliance with the law.
Contents of environmental profile registration
Environmental registration dossier for restaurants includes the following main contents:
General information of the project, production facility, business and services:
- Name and address of the facility
- Information of the owner or legal representative
- Scale and area of operation
- Specific geographic location
Type of production, business and service:
- Describe in detail the food service business activities
- Technology, service capacity
- List of products and services provided by the facility
- Raw materials, fuels, chemicals used (if any)
Type and volume of waste:
- Domestic solid waste
- Wastewater from food and beverage activities
- Exhaust gas from cooking stoves and ventilation systems
- Estimated daily waste generation volume
Methods of waste collection, treatment and management:
- Solid waste collection system
- Wastewater treatment system
- Measures to treat exhaust gas and odors
- Plan for waste transportation and treatment
Commitment to environmental protection work:
- Committed to comply with current environmental laws
- Measures on monitoring and periodic reporting
- Environmental incident response plan
Time to register environmental records
The time for environmental registration is specifically regulated as follows:
- Projects subject to environmental impact assessment: Registration must be carried out before official operation. The specific time is after the completion of construction and equipment installation but before the commencement of business operations.
- Projects not subject to environmental impact assessment:
+ Before being granted a construction permit.
+ Before discharging waste into the environment (in cases where a construction permit is not required)
For production and business service establishments operating before January 1, 2022: Establishments that generate waste must register within 24 months from January 1, 2022. This means the deadline is December 31, 2023.
Document receiving agency
Environmental registration dossiers are submitted to the People’s Committee at the commune level in 3 forms:
- Submit directly to the People’s Committee of the commune where the application is received.
- Send environmental registration documents by post.
- Submit electronic environmental registration application through the online public service portal.
Application processing time
According to regulations, the time for processing environmental registration dossiers shall not exceed 30 working days from the date of receipt of valid dossiers. In case the dossiers are incomplete, the receiving agency shall notify the facility owner to supplement them within 07 working days.
In what cases are environmental records registration exempted?
Current laws stipulate a number of specific cases that are exempt from environmental registration procedures, helping to reduce administrative procedures for small-scale establishments.
Cases of exemption from registration according to waste scale
Projects and production and business service establishments that do not generate waste or only generate waste in small quantities and simultaneously meet all of the following criteria:
- Regarding hazardous waste: Regularly generating hazardous waste under 20kg/month, or under 240kg/year
- Regarding regular industrial solid waste: Regularly generated regular industrial solid waste that must be treated is less than 100 kg/month, or less than 1,200 kg/year.
- Regarding domestic solid waste: Domestic solid waste generation is less than 300 kg/day
- Regarding wastewater and emissions: Wastewater generation is less than 05 m³/day, emissions are less than 50 m³/hour and are treated by on-site treatment equipment or managed according to local government regulations.
Cases of exemption from registration regardless of waste volume
According to the provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and Decree 08/2022/ND-CP (amended by Decree 05/2025/ND-CP), the following projects and production and business service establishments are exempted from environmental dossier registration regardless of the volume of waste generated:
Projects related to state secrets: Projects, production and business facilities related to state secrets related to national defense and security
Specific service activities:
- Human resource training activities; consulting activities, technology transfer, vocational training, technical training, management skills, information provision, marketing, investment and trade promotion
- Production, presentation, distribution of television programs; production of movies, videos; television activities, music publishing and recording activities
- Commercial services, mobile trading and no fixed location
- Commercial services, trading of products, consumer goods, household appliances with a construction area of less than 200 m²
- Catering services with restaurant construction area less than 200 m²
- Repair and maintenance services for household appliances on an individual or family scale
- Photocopying, internet access and video games
- Cultivation on agricultural land, forestry, aquaculture, livestock farming on an individual or household scale
- Experimental planting of plant species on a scale of less than 01 hectare
- Building houses for individuals and households
- Aquaculture projects and facilities in the sea, streams, rivers and reservoirs
Important points to note for restaurants
The 200 m² area criterion is the deciding factor: For food service, the most important criterion to determine whether to register an environmental profile or not is the construction area of the restaurant. Specifically:
- Restaurants with a construction area of less than 200 m2 : Completely exempt from environmental registration and regardless of the actual amount of waste generated.
- Restaurants with a construction area of 200 m2 or more: Must register environmental records according to regulations.
How to calculate construction area: Construction area is calculated as the total floor area of all floors in the building, including areas directly serving business activities such as kitchen, toilet, warehouse, and living space.
Responsibilities of the facility owner
Although exempted from environmental registration, restaurants are still responsible for:
- Comply with environmental protection regulations during operations
- Implement solutions to minimize negative impacts on the environment
- Cooperate with local authorities in managing domestic waste
- Report when an environmental incident occurs
By understanding the regulations on environmental registration, restaurant owners will be able to conduct business with peace of mind without worrying about violating the law. In particular, the exemption from environmental registration for restaurants with an area of less than 200 m2 creates favorable conditions for business development. BIOGENCY encourages investors to consult experts to ensure full compliance with current legal regulations.
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