Digital waste tracking for landfill sites

Every lorry over a landfill weighbridge is a record for Defra within two working days. Landfills already weigh and ticket every load, so the information is there. The job is getting it to Defra in time.

Who: The operator of a permitted landfill: inert, non-hazardous or hazardous.
Codes: 17 05 04 soil and stones at nearly every landfill. Then mixed rubble, fines, mixed municipal.
R or D: D1 deposit into or onto land, D5 specially engineered landfill.
Separate: Your permit's waste returns carry on. Digital waste tracking doesn't file them.

Start free Check your permit

What English landfills took in

Inert landfill

Code	What the catalogue calls it	Sites
17 05 04	soil and stones other than those mentioned in 17 05 03	93%
17 01 07	mixtures of concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramics other than those mentioned in 17 01 06	23%
20 02 02	soil and stones (from gardens and parks)	18%
17 01 01	concrete	15%
19 12 12	other wastes (including mixtures of materials) from mechanical treatment of waste other than those mentioned in 19 12 11 (from treating other waste, such as fines)	10%
17 03 02	bituminous mixtures other than those mentioned in 17 03 01	6%
17 09 04	mixed construction and demolition wastes other than those mentioned in 17 09 01, 17 09 02 and 17 09 03	5%
17 01 02	bricks	4%
19 12 09	minerals (For example,. sand, stones)	4%
19 13 02	solid wastes from soil remediation other than those mentioned in 19 13 01	3%

"Sites" is the share of the 142 English inert landfill 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.

Tonnes went under D1 70%, D5 14%, R5 10%, R13 2%, D15 1% WDI 2024.

Non-hazardous and hazardous landfill

Code	What the catalogue calls it	Sites
17 05 04	soil and stones other than those mentioned in 17 05 03	86%
19 12 12	other wastes (including mixtures of materials) from mechanical treatment of waste other than those mentioned in 19 12 11 (from treating other waste, such as fines)	47%
17 01 07	mixtures of concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramics other than those mentioned in 17 01 06	41%
20 03 01	mixed municipal waste	34%
17 09 04	mixed construction and demolition wastes other than those mentioned in 17 09 01, 17 09 02 and 17 09 03	28%
20 03 07	bulky waste	26%
18 01 04	wastes whose collection and disposal is not subject to special requirements in order to prevent infection (non-infectious healthcare waste)	24%
20 02 02	soil and stones (from gardens and parks)	23%
19 08 01	screenings (from waste water treatment)	23%
19 12 09	minerals (For example,. sand, stones)	23%

"Sites" is the share of the 146 English non-hazardous and hazardous landfill 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.

Tonnes went under D5 40%, D1 34%, R10 20%, R5 2%, R3 1%. Your permit lists the operations you may use for each waste.

An example record, filled in

A made-up bulker of trommel fines from a transfer station.

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 Landfill, cell 4, EX0001XX
Carrier and their number	Example Haulage Ltd, CBDU123456
How it came	Road
Vehicle registration	AB12 CDE
Waste description	Fines from mechanical treatment of mixed waste
EWC code	19 12 12 (typed 191212)
Physical form	Solid
Containers	[LOO] Loose, 0
Weight	21.4 Tonnes, actual
R or D code	D5 for 21.4 tonnes: D5 = 21.4 = 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 landfills out

Weighbridge software already has the ticket. If it doesn't send to Defra, the same details still have to get there: through other software, or Defra's spreadsheet template uploaded to the service.
Hazardous cells take loads on consignment notes. What a hazardous record needs.

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 landfill sites need digital waste tracking?

Yes, a permitted landfill receives waste, so from 1 October 2026 in England and Wales every load in is reported to Defra within two working days.

What D code does a landfill use?

D1 for deposit into or onto land, or D5 for specially engineered landfill. Your permit lists the operations you may use.

Does digital waste tracking replace landfill returns?

No. Your permit's waste returns carry on alongside digital waste tracking.

Can we send a day's tickets in one go?

Yes, many loads can go to Defra in one submission, but each load is its own record, and each is due within two working days of the day after it arrived.

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 inert recycling, soil and quarry restoration17 05 04 and its hazardous twin, R5 or R10, muckaway by lorry type, and an example.
Hazardous waste sites: consignment notes and digital waste trackingConsignment notes carry on. Each note is its own record, with the code, HP codes and components.
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.