Digital waste tracking for anaerobic digestion and biogas plants

Every tanker or trailer of waste feedstock that comes onto a permitted AD plant is a record for Defra, within two working days. The codes depend on your permit far more than at most sites.

Who: The operator of a permitted AD plant that receives waste, on a farm or not.
Codes: R3 for digesting organic waste. R13 for storing it first.
On-farm: SR2021 No 9 lists nine codes. Kitchen and canteen waste (20 01 08) is not one of them.
Only waste: The record is for waste you receive. If you aren't sure an input counts as waste, ask the Environment Agency.

Start free Check your permit

What English AD plants took in

From the 2024 returns of AD plants. Six in ten took farm manure and slurry; the rest of the list is mostly food and drinks factory waste, the catalogue's "materials unsuitable for consumption or processing".

Code	What the catalogue calls it	Sites
02 01 06	animal faeces, urine and manure (including spoiled straw), effluent, collected separately and treated off-site (farm manure and slurry)	62%
02 05 01	materials unsuitable for consumption or processing (dairy)	20%
02 02 04	sludges from on-site effluent treatment (meat and fish processing)	18%
19 08 05	sludges from treatment of urban waste water	18%
02 02 03	materials unsuitable for consumption or processing (meat, fish and other animal food processing)	18%
02 03 04	materials unsuitable for consumption or processing (fruit, veg, cereals and similar processing)	18%
02 06 01	materials unsuitable for consumption or processing (baking and confectionery)	17%
02 07 04	materials unsuitable for consumption or processing (drinks production)	16%
02 03 01	sludges from washing, cleaning, peeling, centrifuging and separation (fruit, veg and cereals processing)	15%
02 01 03	plant tissue waste	15%

"Sites" is the share of the 152 English anaerobic digestion permits that sent the Environment Agency 2024 waste returns and took that code in at least once EA 2024 Waste Data Interrogator. A code an asterisk follows is hazardous.

Your permit's list matters most here

SR2021 No 9, on-farm AD, lists nine codes: 02 01 01, 02 01 03, 02 01 06, 02 01 99, 02 05 01, 02 05 02, 16 10 02, 19 06 03, 19 06 04. SR2021 No 7, the general AD standard rules, lists 47 and does include 20 01 08, kitchen and canteen waste. A bespoke permit has its own table. If a code isn't on yours, the load shouldn't be coming in, and software that knows your permit's list can stop it at the gate.

Both standard rules permits name R3, R1, D10, R13. R3 is recycling organic substances, which covers digestion; R13 is storing waste first. In 2024 returns the tonnes at AD plants went under R3 34%, D8 34%, R13 18%, D13 9%, D3 2% WDI 2024.

An example record, filled in

A made-up tanker of dairy waste, weighed in.

Box	What goes in it (made-up load)
Date and time it arrived	15/10/2026 09:30:00 (Thursday)
Your reference	The weighbridge ticket or transfer note number, e.g. T-10482
Your site and permit	Example Biogas, digester, EX0001XX
Carrier and their number	Example Haulage Ltd, CBDU123456
How it came	Road
Vehicle registration	AB12 CDE
Waste description	Out-of-date milk and whey from a dairy
EWC code	02 05 01 (typed 020501)
Physical form	Liquid
Containers	[TAN] Tanker/Tank, 1
Weight	26.5 Tonnes, actual
R or D code	R3 for 26.5 tonnes: R3 = 26.5 = Tonnes = No
POPs	No
Hazardous properties	No
Consignment note code	Not needed
Due at Defra by	23:59 on Monday 19 October 2026, two working days after the day it came in

All names and numbers are made up.

Things that catch AD plants out

Nobody at the gate. Many plants write loads up afterwards. The two working days still count from the day after each load arrived, so write them up at least every other day.
Estimating. No weighbridge? An estimate is allowed if the record says it is one Schedule 1.
Digestate going out is not your record to make. Whoever receives it, such as a landspreading permit, reports it. Landspreading and mobile plant.
Waste piped in from next door has its own rule: the two days start after the last load, or for continuous piping, after the end of the quarter on the note or when piping stops GOV.UK.

Who has to report what

You report what comes in. The duty is on the operator of the permitted site that receives the waste Reg 4(1). One record per load, within two working days of the day after it arrives.
Not what goes out. When a load leaves you for another permitted site, that site reports receiving it. Your outgoing paperwork carries on as before.
Not the producer or the haulier, yet. Carriers, brokers and dealers are planned to come in from October 2027 GOV.UK. What is known about that so far.
Paper carries on. Waste transfer notes, Annex VII forms and hazardous waste consignment notes are still needed where they were before GOV.UK.

Permit or exemption?

This is the question that decides whether you report now.

A permit (numbered like AB1234CD or EPR/AB1234CD) for a site that receives waste: you are in phase 1, from 1 October 2026 in England and Wales. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the date is 1 January 2027.
Only a registered exemption (a WEX number): not phase 1. GOV.UK say exemptions "will be included in a later phase" and have not given a date GOV.UK. How to tell which you hold.

Not sure? The free permit check looks your site up on the Environment Agency's register.

Straight answers

Questions people ask

Do AD plants need digital waste tracking?

A permitted AD plant that receives waste does: from 1 October 2026 in England and Wales every load of waste it receives is reported to Defra within two working days.

What R code does anaerobic digestion use?

Usually R3, recycling of organic substances, which covers digestion, and R13 for storing waste before it is treated. Your permit lists the codes you may use.

Can an on-farm AD plant take food waste?

Not kitchen and canteen waste under the on-farm standard rules permit, SR2021 No 9: 20 01 08 is not on its list. The general AD standard rules, SR2021 No 7, do list it. A bespoke permit has its own list.

Do I report digestate leaving the plant?

No. You report what you receive. The site that receives the digestate reports it.

We have no weighbridge. How do we record weight?

Record your best estimate and mark it as estimated. The record has a box for whether each weight is estimated or actual.

Want this done for you at the gate?

Byrne Waste Tracking runs in the browser on a phone or computer, with nothing to install. It remembers your carriers and their numbers, offers the waste codes and R or D codes your site uses, checks each load against Defra's rules first, and sends it to Defra automatically once you've linked your Defra account. Byrne Digital Solutions is listed on GOV.UK as a compatible software provider.

£89 per site per month, no contract. Join before 1 November 2026 and nothing is due until 1 November; join from 1 November and you get 14 days free. After that it's £89 a month per site, and there's no card to enter until you start it. No setup fee when you set it up yourself. If a consultant introduces you, any setup fee is agreed through them and you see the amount before you pay anything.

A site in Scotland or Northern Ireland that joins before 1 January 2027 pays nothing until 1 January 2027, the day the duty starts there.

Start free Log a pretend load first

Got a waste consultant? Ask them about Byrne first. Stuck on something here? Email wilf@byrnedigitalsolutions.co.uk - email is the quickest way to reach me, and I reply the same working day.

Digital waste tracking for composting sitesGreen waste codes, R3, open windrow or in-vessel, and a filled-in example.
Landspreading and mobile plantWhat counts as a site, and recording loads at several farms.
Which R or D code am I? Recovery and disposal codes by type of siteR13, R12, R5, R4, R3, R10, D15 and D1 by type of site, and where your permit already lists yours.
Bank holidays and the two working days: every due date worked outChristmas, New Year, Easter and every 2027 bank holiday, worked out for each nation.
Every guideAll the questions customers ask, one page each.