Digital waste tracking for skip hire yards and transfer stations

Every skip, grab or RoRo that tips at your permitted yard is one record for Defra, within two working days. Most yards use the same dozen waste codes and two or three R or D codes. Here they are, from real 2024 figures.

Who: The operator of the permitted yard. Your permit is usually an A11 transfer station, or a standard rules permit such as SR2022 No 3 or No 5.
Each load: One record per lorry, with every waste on it. Never add a day's loads together.
Codes: 20 03 01 and 17 09 04 are the commonest in. R13 (stored, then on to recovery) or D15 (stored, then on to disposal).
Weight: Weighbridge if you have one. If you go by skip size, record it as an estimate.

Start free Check your permit

What English yards actually took in

These are the codes that turned up most at non-hazardous transfer stations in their 2024 returns to the Environment Agency. Seven in ten took mixed municipal waste. Nearly half took mixed construction and demolition waste.

Code	What the catalogue calls it	Sites
20 03 01	mixed municipal waste	71%
17 09 04	mixed construction and demolition wastes other than those mentioned in 17 09 01, 17 09 02 and 17 09 03	47%
17 05 04	soil and stones other than those mentioned in 17 05 03	41%
20 02 01	biodegradable waste (garden and park waste)	40%
17 01 07	mixtures of concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramics other than those mentioned in 17 01 06	39%
17 08 02	gypsum-based construction materials other than those mentioned in 17 08 01	36%
17 02 01	wood (from building and demolition)	35%
20 03 07	bulky waste	30%
20 01 01	paper and cardboard	29%
17 04 07	mixed metals	22%

"Sites" is the share of the 1,309 English non-hazardous transfer station 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.

On a standard rules permit, the permit's own list wins. SR2022 No 3, the construction, demolition and excavation transfer station, lists ten codes only, all rubble, soil and C&D: no 20 03 01. SR2022 No 5 lists over a hundred. Check yours before you key a code it doesn't allow. How to read a code, and the hazardous twins.

Which R or D code

The code is what your yard does with the load, not what happens to it later somewhere else.

R13: you store it and send it on for recovery.
D15: you store it and send it on for disposal, such as landfill.
R12: you sort, separate or bale it before it goes on for recovery.
R5: you crush or screen rubble into aggregate yourself.

In 2024 returns, the tonnes at English transfer stations went under R13 30%, R5 21%, R3 18%, R12 9%, D15 8% WDI 2024. SR2022 No 5 allows R3, R4, R5, D9, D14, R13, D15. Your permit's list is the one that counts. All thirty R and D codes in plain English.

An example record, filled in

A made-up 8-yard skip of builders' waste, weighed in. This is what every box on Defra's record holds for it. In software you pick most of it from lists; in Defra's spreadsheet you type it.

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 Skip Hire, yard, EX0001XX
Carrier and their number	Example Haulage Ltd, CBDU123456
How it came	Road
Vehicle registration	AB12 CDE
Waste description	Mixed builders' waste: brick, timber, plasterboard, packaging
EWC code	17 09 04 (typed 170904)
Physical form	Solid
Containers	[SKI] Skip, 1
Weight	3.2 Tonnes, actual (weighbridge)
R or D code	R13 for the 3.2 tonnes. On Defra's spreadsheet: R13 = 3.2 = Tonnes = No
POPs	No
Hazardous properties	No
Consignment note code	Not needed: no hazardous code on the load
Due at Defra by	23:59 on Monday 19 October 2026, two working days after the day it came in

EX0001XX, CBDU123456 and AB12 CDE are made up. The last part of the spreadsheet line (No) says the weight is not an estimate.

Things that catch yards out

Your own lorries. When your own skip lorry brings a skip back, the carrier is your own company, with your own carrier number. It is still a load in.
Skips by size. An estimated weight is allowed, as long as the record says it is estimated Schedule 1. Work out your own tonnes per skip size once and use them every time.
Householders tipping their own waste. No carrier number, so give Defra's reason instead: householder bringing their own household waste. The four reasons.
One lorry, three wastes. One record with three waste items, each with its own code and weight.
Asbestos or other hazardous waste coming in makes that load a hazardous record, with the consignment note code. How that works.

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.
Council HWRCs: in England, household waste from residents at a council household waste recycling centre is left out; trade waste taken there is in. In Wales GOV.UK say HWRCs do not need to use the service GOV.UK.

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

Straight answers

Questions people ask

Do skip hire companies need digital waste tracking?

If you run a permitted yard or transfer station that receives waste, yes: from 1 October 2026 in England and Wales you report every load you take in, within two working days. The skip lorries themselves come in later, with carriers, planned for October 2027.

What EWC code is a mixed skip?

Usually 17 09 04 for mixed construction and demolition waste, or 20 03 01 for mixed general waste from homes and businesses. The producer should tell you which. Separate wastes on one lorry are separate items.

Is it R13 or D15 for a skip yard?

R13 if you store the waste and it goes on for recovery. D15 if you store it and it goes on for disposal. If you sort or bale it first, R12. Use the code that is true for that load and allowed by your permit.

We weigh skips by size. Is that allowed?

Yes. The record says whether each weight is estimated or actual. If you go by skip size, mark it as an estimate.

Do I report skips going out of the yard?

No. You report what you receive. The site the waste goes on to reports receiving it.

Our own lorry brought it in. What goes in the carrier box?

Your own company's name and its waste carrier registration number, and the lorry's registration.

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.

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.
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.
EWC codes for your type of site, in plain EnglishThe waste codes each kind of site uses most, and how to spot a hazardous one.
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.
Every guideAll the questions customers ask, one page each.