diff --git a/bin/runtests.sh b/bin/runtests.sh
index a714a208d..3c8079210 100755
--- a/bin/runtests.sh
+++ b/bin/runtests.sh
@@ -12,9 +12,6 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
-# disable custom settings for running tests in a neutral environment
-export SCRAPY_SETTINGS_DISABLED=1
-
 # use vsftpd (if available) for testing ftp feed storage
 if type vsftpd >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     vsftpd_conf=$(mktemp /tmp/vsftpd-XXXX)
diff --git a/scrapy/conf.py b/scrapy/conf.py
index c47c38626..795c8d7c0 100644
--- a/scrapy/conf.py
+++ b/scrapy/conf.py
@@ -34,7 +34,4 @@ def get_project_settings():
 
     return settings
 
-if os.environ.get('SCRAPY_SETTINGS_DISABLED'):
-    settings = CrawlerSettings()
-else:
-    settings = get_project_settings()
+settings = get_project_settings()
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_cmdline/__init__.py b/scrapy/tests/test_cmdline/__init__.py
index 3588436b9..d08f266f1 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_cmdline/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_cmdline/__init__.py
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ class CmdlineTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         self.env = os.environ.copy()
         self.env['PYTHONPATH'] = os.path.dirname(scrapy.__path__[0])
-        self.env.pop('SCRAPY_SETTINGS_DISABLED', None)
         self.env['SCRAPY_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'scrapy.tests.test_cmdline.settings'
 
     def _execute(self, *new_args, **kwargs):
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_commands.py b/scrapy/tests/test_commands.py
index 47f67338a..e2b671d19 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_commands.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_commands.py
@@ -61,7 +61,6 @@ class CommandTest(ProjectTest):
         super(CommandTest, self).setUp()
         self.call('startproject', self.project_name)
         self.cwd = join(self.temp_path, self.project_name)
-        self.env.pop('SCRAPY_SETTINGS_DISABLED', None)
         self.env['SCRAPY_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = '%s.settings' % self.project_name
 
 
diff --git a/scrapyd/eggutils.py b/scrapyd/eggutils.py
index 27e661cd0..c507f0be5 100644
--- a/scrapyd/eggutils.py
+++ b/scrapyd/eggutils.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ def get_spider_list_from_eggfile(eggfile, project):
             env = os.environ.copy()
             env['SCRAPY_PROJECT'] = project
             env['SCRAPY_EGGFILE'] = f.name
-            env.pop('SCRAPY_SETTINGS_DISABLED', None)
             proc = Popen(pargs, stdout=PIPE, cwd=tmpdir, env=env)
             out = proc.communicate()[0]
             return out.splitlines()