Works approval is required pursuant to section 19A of the Environment Protection Act 1970 for works at scheduled premises which will, or will be likely to, alter or increase the discharge of wastes or emission of noise to the environment. This also applies to the treatment and storage of prescribed wastes. The works approval process was established to deal with commercial scale proposals where industrial process and discharge parameters are well known and where there is an ongoing discharge to the environment. Given the nature of research, development and demonstration projects, a different procedure is needed to cater for such projects that are typically limited in scale, duration and environmental impact. This procedure is known as research, development and demonstration (RD&D) approval and is applicable to genuine RD&D projects. Large projects that pose the same level of risk of environmental impact as established commercial scale industrial processes will have to undergo the usual works approval.