Guides › Tyres
Your type of site · Tyres
- For
- Tyre storage · shredding
- Code
- 16 01 03
- Checked
- 15 OCTOBER 2026
Digital waste tracking for tyre recycling and storage sites
A tyre site has the simplest codes of any: nearly every load is 16 01 03. The work is the weight, and the deadline. Each load is a record for Defra within two working days.
- Who
- The operator of a permitted tyre storage or treatment site.
- Code
- 16 01 03, end-of-life tyres. It is not hazardous.
- R or D
- SR2021 No 13 names R3, R4 and R13. Your permit decides.
- Weight
- The record wants a weight, not a count. An estimate is fine if it says so.
What English tyre sites took in
Tyres have no site category of their own in the EA's figures, so this is the 63 English
permits where tyres were at least 60% of the tonnes they took in during 2024. Every one took 16 01 03.
SR2021 No 13, storage and mechanical treatment of end-of-life tyres, lists one code,
16 01 03, and names R3, R4, R13. In 2024 returns the tonnes at these sites went under
R5 39%, R3 21%, R13 20%, D15 5%, D8 5% WDI 2024.
An example record, filled in
A made-up van of car tyres from a garage, counted not weighed.
All names and numbers are made up, including the weight per tyre. Use your own. Yes at the end of the spreadsheet line means the weight is an estimate.
Things that catch tyre sites out
- A count is not a weight. Work out your own average weight per tyre type once, and mark the
weight as estimated.
- The garages and collectors don't report to Defra yet. Collectors come in with carriers, planned
for October 2027. Phase 2 for carriers.
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 tyre recyclers need digital waste tracking?
A tyre site with a permit to receive waste does: from 1 October 2026 in England and Wales every load is reported to Defra within two working days.
What EWC code is waste tyres?
16 01 03, end-of-life tyres. It is not a hazardous code.
We count tyres, we don't weigh them. What do we put?
A weight, worked out from your own average per tyre, marked as estimated. The record has a box for whether each weight is estimated or actual.
Do tyre collectors have to report?
Not yet. Collectors are carriers, which are planned to come in from October 2027. The permitted site that receives the tyres reports now.
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.
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.
Related
- Digital waste tracking for scrap metal yards and vehicle dismantlersThe codes yards take, R4 or R13, why batteries and ELVs need a consignment code, and an example.
- Digital waste tracking for skip hire yards and transfer stationsThe codes yards really take, R13 or D15, weighing by skip size, and a filled-in example.
- The carrier's number isn't on your paperwork. Here's where to find it.Look the haulier up free on the public register by name or postcode, and the formats Defra accept.
- 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.