UK SIC 2007 · 38320
Recovery of sorted materials (SIC code 38320)
Recovery of sorted materials is UK SIC code 38320. It sits in division 38 (Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities; materials recovery) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 2,602 active UK companies list 38320 among their SIC codes. 1,885 of them list it first. That makes it the second most used code in its division.
These are the companies that move and process the UK's rubbish. Waste collection, code 38110, is the biggest group. It covers skip hire firms, trade waste collectors and specialist clearance businesses. Code 38210 covers treatment and disposal of non-hazardous waste, which means transfer stations and processing sites. Code 38320, recovery of sorted materials, holds recyclers of metals, plastics and paper. Hazardous waste has its own matching codes with fewer companies. Skip and grab hire firms make up a big share of the smaller entries.
Who prospects SIC 38320 companies
Almost every business here runs trucks. Fleet sellers work the division constantly: vehicle finance, tracking and telematics, tipper and hook loader dealers, fuel cards and operator licence consultants. Recyclers draw commodity traders and equipment suppliers selling balers and shredders. Compliance is the other angle. Carriers need Environment Agency registration and sites need permits, so environmental consultants have steady demand. A new incorporation usually means a new skip firm, or a driver going out alone. Both need finance and insurance before the first collection. Growth signals here point straight at fleet expansion.
Lead generation for trades & construction →How to read SIC 38320
SIC 38320 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 38, are the division, waste collection, treatment and disposal activities; materials recovery. Add the third and you have group 383; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section E, water supply, sewerage and waste management, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 38320 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 38320 are London (297), Birmingham (51), Manchester (41), Nottingham (30) and Glasgow (30). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 38320 as a filter
2,602 companies is 0.05 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 38320 second most used of the 5 codes we track in division 38. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
1,885 companies put 38320 first and a further 717, 28 per cent, list it in one of their other three SIC slots. That gap is the difference between a tight list and a broad one. First-code-only is the safer filter when you are writing to them; matching any position is worth it when you need the volume.
These companies are spread out. London is the largest single cluster at 11 per cent and the top five post towns together hold only 17 per cent, so the remaining 83 per cent sits across the rest of the country. A regional filter narrows this list without gutting it, which makes it a reasonable code to work territory by territory.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 38320 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 38320, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 2,602 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 38320 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 38320 companies, as leads
Live rows from the enriched register. Email and phone values are withheld until you sign up.
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About SIC 38320
How many UK companies use SIC code 38320?
2,602 active UK companies list 38320 (Recovery of sorted materials) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 1,885 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
Does registering a waste SIC code mean the company holds a waste carrier licence?
No. The SIC code and waste carrier registration are separate systems. Anyone can incorporate with 38110 and hold no licence at all, and plenty do that before applying. Carriers register with the Environment Agency in England, or the equivalent bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Companies House record has no bearing on it. Check licences directly rather than guessing from a SIC code.
Should a skip hire company pick a waste code or a plant hire code?
Skip hire that collects and disposes of the contents is waste collection, so 38110 is the usual code. Renting out containers without touching the waste leans towards a rental code in division 77. Many firms list both to cover the mix. Companies House applies no test either way. Companies declare their own codes and change them freely on the confirmation statement.
Find UK SIC 38320 companies
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