Digital waste tracking from 1 October 2026: what permitted sites must do

Is your site in scope?

• If you are licensed or permitted to receive controlled waste, you must enter details of every load you receive on Defra's Report receipt of waste service. That covers all permitted operations, installations and mobile plant, including sites where the waste is produced. GOV.UK
• Controlled waste means most household, commercial and industrial waste. GOV.UK
• The duty sits with the operator of the permitted site that receives the waste. Reg 4(1)
• Waste exemptions are not in this first phase. Phase 1 only covers permitted sites that receive waste. Exemptions come in with phase 2. GOV.UK
• Household waste recycling centres: you do not need to use the service if you run an HWRC in Wales, or for household waste from residents at an HWRC in England. GOV.UK Commercial waste received at a permitted HWRC in England is in phase 1. GOV.UK
• Scotland and Northern Ireland start in January 2027. Carriers, brokers and dealers become mandatory from October 2027. GOV.UK

"Digitally excluded" is narrow

You only count as digitally excluded if using digital tools is not practical because of your age, disability or location, or if your business is run entirely by practising members of a religious society whose beliefs rule out electronic records. Preferring paper, being unfamiliar with software, or the extra time or cost do not count. If you do qualify, you need a digitally excluded number from your regulator, and you still make a written record of every load within 2 working days and keep it for at least 3 years. GOV.UK

What goes in each record

The full list is in Schedule 1 of the regulations. In short: Schedule 1

• You and your site: your name, your environmental permit number (and the deployment reference for mobile plant), the site address, and the date and time the waste arrived.
• Who brought it: the carrier's name and their carrier registration number, or the reason there isn't one. How it came (road, rail, sea and so on), and the registration of each vehicle if by road.
• Any broker or dealer who arranged the transport, with their registration number.
• The waste: a description, the six-digit waste code (EWC code) or codes, and for each code the weight, the unit, whether the weight is estimated or actual, the disposal or recovery code (D or R code), and the type and number of containers.
• Its physical form: gas, liquid, solid, powder, sludge or mixed, plus any special handling needs.
• Hazardous waste and POPs: the consignment note code, the HP codes, the chemical or biological components and their concentrations, or the reason you can't give them.

Defra's spreadsheet template sets out the same fields. GOV.UK

Two working days, from the day after

You must submit each record within 2 working days, not counting weekends and bank holidays, starting on the day after you receive the waste. GOV.UK's demo: waste received at 9am on Monday must be submitted, with a reference number back from Defra, by 11:59pm on Wednesday. GOV.UK

Worked out from GOV.UK's rule. Add a day for each bank holiday in between.

• Errors Defra tell you about (by email or through your software) must be corrected within the same 2 working days. Any other error: as soon as you can, and always within 1 month of finding it. GOV.UK
• If you can't get online (building damage, a network failure): tell your regulator as soon as you can, make a written record within the 2 working days, and put it into the service within 7 working days of the outage ending. GOV.UK

Set up your Defra account

• The first time you use the service you create a Defra account, using your organisation's Government Gateway or GOV.UK One Login account. You can create one inside the service. GOV.UK

• Once your organisation is registered you are given a unique API code. If you use software, you give that code to your provider. One code covers every site your organisation runs. GOV.UK
• More than one company? Each one is registered separately and gets its own API code. GOV.UK
• Software providers can't register or pay for you. Defra: waste receivers will need to register and pay on the service themselves. Defra FAQ

The £26 service charge

• £26 a year for each organisation on your account. It does not depend on how many sites the organisation has. GOV.UK says the first charge is due by 31 January 2027. GOV.UK
• The regulations set the fee at £26, payable the first time you have to report a load, then on each anniversary. Reg 5
• It matters: under the regulations, a load is not properly reported if you did not get Defra's record number back because the fee was unpaid. Reg 4(6)

The two ways to report

There are two ways to report, and you can use a mix of both. GOV.UK

• Defra call the spreadsheet a temporary route to help sites comply while they get software. They expect it to stay until at least October 2027, and will withdraw it when appropriate. GOV.UK Defra blog
• See who is listed: Report receipt of waste: choose a software provider on GOV.UK. Defra's helpline can't advise on particular software products. GOV.UK

Paper carries on

Until further notice you must keep completing waste transfer notes, Annex VII forms and hazardous waste consignment notes (where required), keep sending the waste returns your permit asks for, and keep sending hazardous waste consignee returns. GOV.UK

What happens if you don't

Not complying is an offence. That includes the rules on deadlines, outages, written records, correcting errors and making accurate records. GOV.UK lists what you could face: GOV.UK

• a compliance notice
• an enforcement cost recovery notice
• a fixed monetary penalty of £1,000
• a variable monetary penalty of an unlimited amount
• prosecution and, if convicted, an unlimited fine

• The civil penalties and notices are set out in regulation 19, and the fines on conviction in regulation 18. Reg 19 Reg 18
• Regulators keep a public register of convictions, civil sanctions and enforcement cost recovery notices. GOV.UK
• The Environment Agency says it will use its enforcement powers where organisations don't meet their obligations, and that digital reporting makes non-compliance easier to detect. EA blog