Digital waste tracking:
every load reported within two working days.

Digital waste tracking is the government’s online record of controlled waste. Since 1 October 2026, every licensed or permitted site in England and Wales that receives waste must report each load it takes in, within two working days. Scotland and Northern Ireland follow in January 2027. Waste transfer notes have not gone: they run alongside it.

What digital waste tracking is

The service is called Report receipt of waste, and Defra runs it. The site that receives a load records the details, sends them to the service, and gets back a unique reference number for that load. Until the number arrives, the load has not been reported.

In England the duty comes from the Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026, made under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Wales and Scotland have their own regulations with the same name. The aim, in the government’s words, is to follow permitted waste across the country and give regulators better evidence against waste crime.

Who must report now

Phase 1 covers the operator of any licensed or permitted site that receives controlled waste. That means transfer stations, recycling yards, treatment sites and landfill. GOV.UK names permitted operations, installations and mobile plant, including sites on the same ground where the waste is produced.

Most household, commercial and industrial waste is controlled waste, and almost everything that leaves a building job is. Three groups sit outside phase 1:

• Household waste recycling centres, for household waste brought in by residents.
• Waste exemption holders. Exemptions are planned for a later phase.
• Operators who are digitally excluded, by age, disability or location, who follow a written process instead. Preferring paper does not count.

What the receiving site records about each load

Schedule 1 of the England regulations lists the details for every load. Most of them describe the load as it arrives at the gate, so the site can only report what the lorry and its paperwork tell it:

• The date and time the load was received.
• Who transported it, with their waste carrier registration number, or the reason there is none.
• Any broker or dealer who arranged the movement, with their registration number.
• How it travelled, and the registration of every vehicle used on the road.
• A description of the waste and its six-digit waste code or codes.
• The weight under each code, and whether that weight is estimated or actual.
• The type and number of containers, and the recovery or disposal code applied.
• For hazardous waste, its hazardous property codes and the consignment note code that travelled with it.
• Any persistent organic pollutants and their concentration, the physical form of the waste, and any special handling.

A skip described as “mixed” with no code is now a gap on a government record. The site that receives it fills the gap, or records why it could not.

The two working day deadline

The site has two working days to report, counted from the day after the load arrives. Weekends and bank holidays do not count. GOV.UK’s own example: a load received at 9am on Monday must be reported, with its reference number back, by 11:59pm on Wednesday.

An error flagged by the service is corrected within the same two days. Any other error must be put right as soon as possible, and always within one month of finding it. If the service or the site’s systems are down, the site makes a written record within the two days and transfers it within seven working days of the outage ending.

Data goes in through the operator’s waste software, connected to Defra’s interface, or on Defra’s own spreadsheet template. The spreadsheet cannot be changed or swapped for the site’s own. Defra expects it to stay available until at least October 2027. The service costs £26 a year for each organisation, with the first payment due by 31 January 2027.

Missing the deadline is an offence for the operator, punishable by a fine. The Environment Agency can also impose a fixed penalty of £1,000, a variable penalty or a compliance notice, and can reach directors whose neglect caused the breach.

What stays on paper

Nothing that existed before has been switched off. Until further notice, waste transfer notes, hazardous waste consignment notes and Annex VII forms continue as they were. Permitted sites still submit their waste returns, and consignee returns for hazardous waste, alongside the new reports.

The duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is unchanged too. The waste producer still describes the waste accurately and hands it only to someone authorised to take it. A transfer note is still kept for two years, and a hazardous waste consignment note for three. Waste transfer notes covers what goes on one.

What it means for a firm sending waste away

A trade firm that only produces waste has no new report to make in phase 1. Its skip, grab or muck-away load is reported by the site that receives it. What changes is how far the firm’s paperwork travels. The description, the code, the carrier and the weight now end up in a national record.

Three checks are worth making on every load:

• The carrier is registered. In England the registration number starts with CB and is on the public register. A firm carrying its own waste needs a registration too. For construction or demolition waste, which includes repair and alteration work, that is an upper tier registration, renewed every three years.
• The code matches the load. Soil and stones, mixed construction and demolition waste, plasterboard and insulation all have their own six-digit codes, and they are not interchangeable.
• The weight is recorded. The site records whether it was estimated or weighed, so a weighbridge ticket is worth keeping with the note.

A firm that runs its own permitted recycling yard, or a crusher under a mobile plant permit, is in phase 1 itself. It reports what it takes in, within the same two working days, with its permit number and, for mobile plant, its deployment reference.

Phase 2: carriers, brokers and dealers

Defra’s policy paper plans a second phase for the firms that move and arrange waste. Its timetable is a private beta from autumn 2026, a public beta from spring 2027, and use of the service mandatory for waste collectors from October 2027. That phase still needs its own regulations, so the October 2027 date is a plan rather than law.

Waste exemption holders, and exports of green list waste, are planned for later phases still. Firms that carry their own waste should watch for the phase 2 regulations, because those will say exactly who carries the new duty.

Digital waste tracking rules differ in detail between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This article follows the England regulations and GOV.UK guidance as published on 28 October 2026. It is general guidance rather than legal advice; the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, SEPA and DAERA answer questions on meeting the requirements.