UK SIC 2007 code in Section E: Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
38320 Recovery of sorted materials
SIC 38320 is the UK code for recovery of sorted materials. Companies House accepts it when you register a company or file a confirmation statement.
- Code
- 38320 (UK SIC 2007, Companies House list)
- Section
- Section E: Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
- Division
- 38 Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities; materials recovery
- SIC 2026
- 20.16 Manufacture of plastics in primary forms (1:2); 38.21 Materials recovery (1:2)
- Closest US NAICS
- 562920
Activities ONS lists under 38320
The ONS index assigns these 22 activities to this code. If one describes your company, this is the code to use.
- Cleaning and devulcanising of waste rubber
- Crushing, cleaning and sorting of demolition waste to obtain secondary raw materials
- Crushing, cleaning and sorting of glass
- Crushing, cleaning and sorting of glass to produce secondary raw materials
- Disposal of waste oil
- Extraction of silver from waste
- Mechanical crushing of metal waste (cars, washing machines, etc.) With sorting and separation
- Mechanical crushing of metal waste from used bikes
- Mechanical reduction of large iron pieces such as railway wagons into secondary raw materials
- Non-metal waste and scrap recycling into secondary raw materials
- Processing cleaning, melting, grinding of plastic or rubber waste to granulates
- Processing of food, beverage and tobacco waste and residual substances into secondary raw materials
- Processing of used cooking oils and fats into secondary raw materials
- Reclaiming metals out of photographic waste, e.g. Fixer solution or photographic films and paper
- Reclaiming of rubber to produce secondary raw materials
- Recovery of waste oil
- Rubber powder from waste
- Scrap metal recycling into new raw materials (except remelting of ferrous waste and scrap)
- Shredding of metal waste, end-of-life vehicles
- Sorting and pelleting of plastics to produce secondary raw material for tubes, flower pots, pallets
- Sorting and pelleting of plastics to produce secondary raw materials
- Treatment of waste oil
Source: ONS UK SIC 2007 alphabetical index.
What changes in SIC 2026
ONS published UK SIC 2026 in 2026. Its correspondence table maps this code's class (38.32) to:
| SIC 2026 code | Heading | Link type |
|---|---|---|
| 20.16 | Manufacture of plastics in primary forms | 1:2 |
| 38.21 | Materials recovery | 1:2 |
"1:1" means the class carries over unchanged in scope; other link types mean it was split or merged. Companies House still uses SIC 2007, so keep filing with 38320 until it announces a switch.
Closest US NAICS codes
Matched through the shared international class (ISIC Rev. 4). Treat these as a starting point and read the definition before using one.
Similar codes to compare
Data last changed November 14, 2026. Source: Companies House condensed SIC list. How this page is built.