Digital waste tracking: in force since 1 October 2026
Every load received at a permitted or licensed waste site in England and Wales has to be recorded in the government’s Digital Waste Tracking Service within two working days.
Same weighbridge, same gate routine, with a digital receipt record added alongside the paperwork that continues until further notice. The work is mostly getting your data straight once so the daily recording is quick.
Who has to record what, and when
Three dates. Carriers usually look at the wrong one.
Permitted and licensed waste receiving sites must record every load they receive in the Digital Waste Tracking Service. This is in law, not consultation.
Current Scottish and Northern Irish regulator guidance says receiving sites follow three months later.
Phase 2 is planned, not yet in statute. Carrier preparation still matters from October 2026: a permitted site needs enough correct information to record the load, so lapsed registration or poor waste information can delay or prevent acceptance.
Key rules from October 2026
- Within 2 working daysEach movement has to be recorded in the service within two working days of it happening.
- £26 a yearAnnual service registration fee for each legal entity that creates or edits records. It is not a per-site charge.
- Using a software provider?Defra publishes providers whose products have passed its Production Approval Tests. Check the product you use is listed.
- Phase 1 scopePermitted and licensed receiving sites. Sites operating under a waste exemption come in a later phase.
- No new carrier numberSites record the carrier by its existing carrier registration number. Carriers cannot enrol in the service themselves yet.
Site, carrier or producer: what digital tracking means for you
If you run a receiving site
Transfer stations, treatment and recycling sites, scrap yards, landfill, quarries and restoration sites taking inert material. You have recorded every incoming load since 1 October 2026; this is the statutory phase.
If you produce waste
Your own phase comes later. Expect your carriers and sites to ask for tidier information, because they now have to record it.
If you’re a carrier, broker or dealer
You have no statutory duty until the planned 2027 phase, and “ready” for you in 2026 does not mean buying software. It means the sites you tip at can record your load from the first day: your registration live and matching what the Environment Agency holds, the right waste code and description, weights, vehicle registration. Get any of it wrong and the load can be paused at the gate.
Defra plans to bring carriers into the service in testing stages ahead of the planned October 2027 date; the operators who use that year will be the ones already working digitally when it lands.
The record moves, the duty doesn’t
Most of the information is what’s on the paper transfer note today: what the waste is, how much, who brought it, where it came from and where it’s going. What changes is that the receiving site makes that record digitally, it goes to Defra, and a tracking reference comes back.
Everything underneath stays as it was. Your duty of care, the six-digit waste code and description, the carrier’s registration, the weighbridge, your permit conditions. None of that is replaced. It’s recorded in a different place.
What gets a load paused at the gate
Most paperwork problems come back to four things. Under digital tracking each one is either caught at entry or shows up as a gap in the record Defra holds.
Details that don’t match the register
Trading names, old addresses, a missing or wrong carrier registration number. The site can’t record what it can’t match.
Digital: the carrier is pulled from the public register, with its registration status shown.
Vague descriptions and wrong codes
“Mixed waste” or “rubbish” tells the site nothing about what’s on the vehicle, and the wrong six-digit code can send a load to the wrong place.
Digital: search by code or plain description, with the official wording shown alongside.
Missing weights, dates and paper signatures
A blank weight, an unsigned transfer note or a date that does not match the booking can all cause trouble at the gate.
Digital: complete the required receipt fields, including quantity and date and time received. Existing paper notes still need the signatures that apply to them.
Records in five places
Cabs, spreadsheets, inboxes and filing cabinets. When the regulator asks for two years of notes, someone has to find them.
Digital: keep the Defra tracking reference, paper-note reference and weighbridge-ticket reference together, then test that staff can retrieve the evidence.
Submitting is not the same as it working day to day
Since 1 October most receiving sites can get their records to Defra. Whether the route they picked holds up on a busy day is a different question. Sites arrived by three roads: specialist software, the spreadsheet upload, or whatever could be bought in time. Two of those roads are causing problems.
The spreadsheet upload
Defra kept a manual route so nobody was left unable to comply, and records do get submitted. It struggles once the yard is busy: every load is typed in by hand, there is little to flag a figure that looks wrong, and putting a mistake right afterwards is hard work.
What to look for: a route that records each load as it arrives and checks it before it goes to Defra.
Software bought in a hurry
Some systems were chosen on price or a good demonstration because a decision had to be made by October. The gaps only show at real volume: submissions bounced back with no clear reason, corrections that take an age, screens slower than the sales demo.
Before you commit: ask how long one load takes from arrival to Defra reference on a busy day, and test it.
The real cost is time
The monthly fee is rarely the expensive part. The cost is how long each submission takes, how many need chasing or correcting, and whether the job swallows half a day of someone’s week.
What to look for: a route that keeps its own copy of every record, so nothing is keyed in twice if Defra’s service drops out.
Changing is easier than it looks
Much of the software in this market is sold month to month rather than on a long contract. Check your notice period before assuming you are stuck with what you have.
What to look for: a route your gate staff can learn in one short session.
Getting over the line in October was the first job. Having a route your team is happy to use every day is the second.
Our Defra-approved route
We use specialist, Defra-integrated software and we set you up on it. It fits round the way your site already works rather than making you change it, and the record goes straight to Defra with the tracking reference coming back to the load.
Capture
Record the required receipt details as part of the gate or office routine, no later than the statutory deadline.
Verify
Check the carrier registration, site permit and waste code before submission. The software route can assist with structured fields and lookups, but the operator remains responsible for the facts.
Submit
The record goes to Defra’s service and comes back with a tracking reference, which is also what you use for any later correction.
Find it again
Keep the Defra tracking reference with your paper-note and weighbridge-ticket references so the movement evidence can be retrieved later.
Compliance first, software second
Software records the load. It doesn’t tell you whether your permit, your waste codes and your paperwork are right in the first place. That’s our side of it, and it’s what you still need whichever software ends up at your gate.
Readiness review
Where you stand now: what your current process already covers, what doesn’t yet exist, and what the regulator will expect to see. Short, written, and yours to keep whatever you decide to do next.
Data clean-up
The waste codes and standard descriptions for the streams you take regularly, your permit and licence details as the Environment Agency holds them, the registration numbers of the carriers who deliver to you. Getting these right once is what makes the daily recording quick.
Set-up and walk-through
We set your sites up on the route, run the first loads through with you, and walk your weighbridge, gatehouse and office staff through what they’ll see, using your own loads rather than sample data.
Keeping it right
Permit renewals, changes in the streams you accept, Environment Agency correspondence, and the questions the digital record throws up once you’re live. A compliance team on the end of a phone; see our permitting and compliance services.
IWS is itself a registered waste carrier, broker and dealer (CBDU648262). We work under the same rules we set you up for.
Questions we get asked
Will we need new hardware or anything installed?
The current IWS demonstration is browser-based and does not show a local installation. Test the exact devices, browser versions, data connection and staff routine you intend to use before deciding whether any equipment or process change is needed.
What happens if the gatehouse loses signal, or Defra’s service is down?
Local connectivity trouble does not move the normal deadline: keep the required details and submit the receipt record by the end of the second working day. During a Digital Waste Tracking Service outage, make the written record within two working days and transfer it into the service within seven working days after the outage is resolved.
Our weighbridge supplier says they’ll handle digital tracking. Do we still need you?
You may not need another recording route if your supplier’s integration is ready and tested. IWS can still review the codes, permits, registrations and duty-of-care routine behind it. If you compare routes, test a real load and confirm what is entered once, what must be re-keyed and who owns corrections and outages.
Isn’t there a spreadsheet option?
Defra currently expects an interim spreadsheet submission route to remain available until at least October 2027, subject to review. It is a way of submitting, not a delay to the duty: the record is still due within two working days from 1 October 2026. A spreadsheet does not by itself provide the same workflow checks and lookups as specialist software, so test it against your volume and control needs.
Can’t we just type each load into Defra’s own web portal?
You can use Defra’s own route, and it may suit a low-volume site. Test it with representative loads before deciding: compare the time, validation and correction process with your current routine and any software option.
We haven’t got a weighbridge. Can we still comply?
Yes. The regulations accept an estimated weight where an actual one isn’t available. On our route, container type and fill level are converted to an estimated tonnage using the Environment Agency’s own factors for that waste code, and the record is flagged as an estimate when it goes to Defra.
What if a record needs correcting after it’s been sent?
Use the tracking reference to correct the existing record. Correct errors as soon as practicable and within one month of becoming aware of them. If an error prevents the original receipt record being accepted, fix it within the original two-working-day deadline. The service keeps a history of changes.
What about hazardous waste?
Phase 1 covers receiving sites recording hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Consignment-note paperwork continues until further notice. The digital record requires hazardous components and concentration values; if a concentration is unavailable, record why it cannot be provided.
How do we know the software is Defra-approved?
Defra publishes its list of software providers that have passed its Production Approval Tests. Ask us and we’ll send you the government reference so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
Is there a Defra helpline?
Digital waste tracking software helpline 03000 203781. Check the current GOV.UK guidance for opening hours.
What does it cost?
Software recording can cost as little as 35p per intake of material. The information for each intake is brought together in one central record. It works alongside your existing site system.
Defra’s £26 annual service registration fee, software-provider charges and any IWS review or clean-up work are separate. Ask us for the current scope and written charges before you commit.
Where do you stand on digital waste tracking?
Tell us your organisation, the site and a telephone number. We’ll come back with a straight view of what you already have covered and what needs doing.
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Page last reviewed 5 September 2026.