C-DRONE GUIDE · 26 AUGUST 2026
Drone and Plastics Processing Site: ICPE Headings 2661 and 2662, Polymer Storage and Prices
A yard cluttered with bulk bags of scrap and octabins of granulate, four polypropylene silos lined up along a gable end, an injection-moulding workshop running three shifts under a roof bristling with extraction units, and a housing estate a few dozen metres beyond the fence. On a plastics processing site everyone knows the feared scenario : a polymer stockpile catching fire releases considerable heat, a black plume visible for miles and heavily loaded firewater that absolutely must be kept on site. Yet most of what guards against that scenario — island spacing, pile height, clear aisles, roof condition, the useful volume of the containment basin — is poorly checked from the ground and perfectly visible from the air. Here is what the drone documents on this kind of site, what it does not replace, and the prices.
Published on 26 August 2026, reviewed on 26 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.
Plastics processing and polymer storage: ICPE headings 2661 and 2662
A plastics processing site almost always carries two separate classifications. The workshop itself — extrusion, injection moulding, blow moulding, thermoforming, vulcanisation, or conversely sawing, cutting, grinding and granulating — falls under ICPE heading 2661, which covers the transformation of polymers : plastics, rubbers, elastomers, resins and synthetic adhesives. Its classification criterion is the quantity of material that can be processed per day, with two distinct scales depending on the process. For processes requiring particular temperature or pressure conditions, the plant falls under declaration between 1 and 10 tonnes a day, registration between 10 and 70 tonnes a day, and authorisation above 70 tonnes a day. For purely mechanical processes, less energy-intensive and considered less hazardous, the thresholds are wider : declaration from 2 to 20 tonnes a day, registration above 20 tonnes a day. General requirements are set by the order of 14 January 2000 for declaration and the order of 27 December 2013 for registration.
The stockpile falls under a separate heading : heading 2662, covering the storage of polymers — virgin or recycled granulate, finished goods, offcuts and scrap — excluding installations already classified under heading 1510 (covered warehouses). Its criterion is the volume that can be stored : from 100 to 1,000 m³ the plant falls under declaration, governed by an order of 14 January 2000 ; above 1,000 m³ it moves to registration, governed by the order of 15 April 2010. These volume thresholds are markedly lower than those of neighbouring heading 2663, covering tyres and products at least 50 % polymer by unit mass, detailed in our guide to used tyre storage facilities : 100 m³ against 1,000 m³ to enter declaration. A modest outdoor yard of bulk bags and pallets of finished goods is therefore often enough to bring a plastics site under heading 2662 — something many operators discover late.
Fire load, setback distance and island layout: what an aerial survey shows
What makes a polymer stockpile formidable is not how easily it ignites but its fire load : mass for mass, most common plastics release on burning an energy comparable to that of a hydrocarbon, far above wood or cardboard. An outdoor plastics stockpile fire escalates fast, radiates strongly towards neighbours, gives off a black plume loaded with soot and organic compounds, and leaves runs of molten material on the ground that carry the fire beyond the original island. That physics explains the severity of the order of 15 April 2010 applicable to polymer storage under the registration regime : storage boundaries are set back a minimum of 20 metres from the site boundaries, storage is divided into islands of no more than 400 m², bulk storage height does not exceed 8 metres outside silos, clear passages at least 2 metres wide are kept around each island, and at least a third of the ground area stays permanently free of any storage. A 400 m² island is far more restrictive than the 3,000 to 6,000 m² allowed for a tyre island under heading 2663 — and therefore far more quickly exceeded in day-to-day operation.
None of this can be seriously checked from the ground : a 2-metre aisle partly taken over by a row of empty pallets, an island that has doubled its footprint in three months because a customer postponed a collection, a scrap pile creeping above the permitted height, informal storage eating into the 20-metre strip along the fence — all of it settles in gradually, without anyone inside the site perceiving it as a change. A georeferenced orthophoto and 3D model of the outdoor yard deliver, in half a day, a dated and measurable picture : each island's actual footprint, the spacing between islands, pile heights, effective aisle widths, free ground area. Repeated two to four times a year on an identical flight plan, this survey becomes a comparable series that exposes drift before an environmental inspectorate visit or an insurer's risk survey does — a use detailed in our guide to the drone risk prevention survey for property insurance.
Measuring granulate, scrap and regrind volumes by photogrammetry
On a plastics processing site, material moves in very different forms : virgin granulate in silos or octabins, recycled material in bulk bags, production offcuts and sprues in skips, regrind in windrows, finished goods on wrapped pallets. Counting and estimating all that by eye from the ground gives a rough order of magnitude that degrades as soon as piles are irregular or mixed. A drone photogrammetric survey produces a 3D model of each pile and calculates its volume with an accuracy visual estimation cannot approach : it is the method detailed in our guide to drone stockpile volume measurement, developed for aggregate stockpiles in quarries and directly transposable to a yard of plastic scrap or regrind.
The transposition is not theoretical. A study by Grazia Tucci, Alessandro Gebbia, Alessandro Conti, Lidia Fiorini and Claudio Lubello, published in 2019 in Remote Sensing, implemented and validated drone photogrammetric volume measurement on stockpiles of material from separate waste collection destined for the recycling chain — precisely the kind of material found on a plastics scrap yard — comparing volumes computed from point clouds against the site's reference measurements (see the study on Google Scholar). Two limits deserve to be stated plainly : a stockpile partly sheltered, tarpaulined or kept under a canopy partly escapes the survey, and a bulk bag or wrapped pallet is far better counted than measured — for that kind of unit stock, orthophoto counting, not volume computation, gives the best result. And in every case the figure remains a management tool : material accounting, weighbridge readings and the waste register remain the only enforceable references.
Workshop roof, extraction and thermal patrol: real value and limits
The roof of a plastics workshop takes a particular beating : it is pierced by extraction units, extrusion fume ducts, mould cooling units and pneumatic granulate conveying lines, and it sits above presses and granulators that vibrate continuously. Every penetration is a weak point in the waterproofing, every equipment mount the start of a defect, and water ingress above an electrical cabinet or a raw-material stock costs far more than the repair that would have prevented it. Drone coverage as a roof inspection produces a complete photographic report with nobody working at height : degraded seals, loose fixings, standing water around equipment bases, gutters clogged with grinding dust. The same pass allows the apparent condition and clearance of smoke vents to be checked, without replacing their periodic functional testing by a competent body.
A thermal pass usefully complements the visual reading of the envelope. A study by Ortiz-Sanz and co-authors, published in 2019 in Remote Sensing, compared a drone-mounted thermal camera against a fixed mast-mounted camera for detecting thermal bridges, air infiltration and rising damp on a building envelope, finding comparable detection performance with far shorter coverage time for the drone (see the study on Google Scholar). On a plastics site, drone thermography spots from outside an abnormally hot extraction duct, an overheating granulator motor, an outdoor electrical cabinet rising in temperature, an area of waterlogged roof insulation. It sees nothing, however, of what may be smouldering inside a granulate silo or deep in a scrap pile : the material insulates, and a deep-seated fire can develop for a long time without any surface signature — the same limit described in our guide to thermal monitoring of a waste sorting centre. It complements the workshop's fire detection and human patrols ; it never substitutes for them.
Firewater containment basin, mission method and prices
The point operators most underestimate lies downstream : firewater. The order of 15 April 2010 requires water liable to be polluted during a fire to be collected and contained on site, with a containment volume computed from the firefighting water requirement, the volume of product liable to be released and an allowance for rainwater. This is no symbolic precaution. A study by Wioletta Rogula-Kozłowska, Adam Krasuski, Justyna Rybak and co-authors, published in 2024 in Science of the Total Environment, measured the ecotoxicity and mutagenicity of firewater runoff produced during fire tests on various furnishing and insulation materials, and showed that runoff from burning polyurethane foam — a polymer — was the most toxic of the panel tested (see the study on Google Scholar). A periodic photogrammetric survey of the basin or retention area shows the useful volume actually available — silting, vegetation, equipment left in the bottom, a blocked valve structure — without anyone working at the water's edge, using the same method described in our guide to drone inspection of a wastewater treatment plant. The overall 3D model also feeds, where one exists, the fire emergency intervention plan shared with the fire service.
The mission runs half a day for a typical site, a full day where the outdoor yard is extensive or a thermal pass is added. It starts with a briefing with the QHSE or maintenance manager : the list of islands and structures to survey, areas where pneumatic conveying and rooftop extraction create disturbing air flows, forklift and truck traffic in the yard, a take-off point clear of traffic lanes. As with any work on an industrial site, the prevention plan and coactivity are settled before the flight, not on the day. Since plastics sites very often sit in business parks near an airfield or on the edge of a built-up area, the zone is always checked on Géoportail before any quote — see our guide to flying a drone in French cities — and up-to-date professional liability insurance is a non-negotiable prerequisite for the contractor. Finally, a reminder of what the drone does not do : it produces neither the hazard study, nor the sizing of the firefighting water requirement, nor the structural diagnosis of a roof frame, nor the statutory periodic inspection of equipment. It supplies a dated, measurable picture that others put to use.
2026 prices (excl. VAT) : €400 to €800 for a one-off measurement of yard stockpiles (granulate, scrap, regrind) ; €900 to €1,800 for a full campaign combining an orthophoto and 3D model of the outdoor yard, island footprint and height measurement, roof inspection and a containment basin survey ; €350 to €700 for a targeted inspection (workshop roof alone, granulate silos alone, or a standalone thermal patrol) ; €250 to €500 per visit for recurring quarterly monitoring on the same flight plan. A travel charge applies beyond a 30 to 50 km radius. Request a quote stating the outdoor yard area, the number of islands and silos to survey and the goal (regulatory file, insurer risk survey, inventory or fire prevention).
Frequently asked questions
Is a drone survey enough to prove that the storage-island layout is compliant?
No. The 3D model and orthophoto give footprint, spacing and height measurements far more reliable than a visual guess from the ground, and can flag an island spreading out, an aisle blocked by pallets or a pile creeping too high. It is a dated monitoring and alert tool, usable internally : it helps the operator check over time that the site still matches the layout approved in the declaration or registration file, but it never amounts to a regulatory inspection and in no way relieves the operator of their own responsibility.
Does the thermal camera detect a fire starting deep inside a plastic stockpile or a granulate silo?
It reads a surface temperature : cladding, the visible top of an island, a silo's outer wall, a rooftop extraction unit. A fire starting deep inside a pile of scrap or in a mass of granulate takes time to show at the surface, and may never do so before the situation becomes critical : the material insulates. A drone thermal patrol effectively spots overheating visible from outside — a granulator motor, an outdoor electrical cabinet, a hot spot on a duct — and complements fixed fire detection, human patrols and workshop sensors. It never replaces them.
Can drone volume measurement be used to determine the ICPE regime under heading 2662?
No. Heading 2662 is classified on the volume that can be stored — the installation's maximum capacity as the operator declares and justifies it in the file — not on the volume present on a given day. Drone volume measurement captures a snapshot : it serves internal management (stock rotation, preparing a collection, an inventory for an insurance declaration) and can alert the operator when actual stock approaches the declared capacity, but it carries no classification value.