Planned: digital waste tracking for carriers
In force
00:00, Thursday 1 October 2026
UK time
The Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026
SI 2026/729 · made 24 June 2026
What it requires
- Who: sites in England holding an environmental permit to receive waste.
- What: every load they receive is recorded on the government's digital waste tracking service.
- Includes: who carried the load and their waste carrier registration number, the vehicle registration, waste codes, weights, and the recovery or disposal operation.
- When: by the end of the second working day after the day the load arrives.
- Cost to those sites: £26 a year per organisation.
What it does not change
- Garages and other waste producers have no new duty. The duty of care is unchanged.
- Waste transfer notes continue as before.
- Sites operating under a registered exemption, such as T8, are not covered. Exemptions are lawful.
Defra's published timeline plans to make digital waste tracking mandatory for waste carriers from October 2027. This is a plan, not yet law.
What changed on 1 October 2026
What is changing
Today a movement of waste is evidenced by a transfer note held by each party, in whatever form they keep it. Under digital waste tracking, the movement is recorded in a single national service, and the record is created as the waste moves rather than reconstructed afterwards.
The duty itself does not change. Section 34 still puts responsibility on the business that produced the waste, and a carrier still has to be registered. What changes is that the evidence becomes visible to the regulator without anyone asking for a file.
Who the planned phase would affect
The published plan includes businesses that carry, broker or deal in waste. The detailed requirements for that wider phase are not yet fixed in law.
What a one-van operator actually needs
A current registration, a way of recording each movement at the point it happens, and a receiving site that is permitted or exempt to take what you bring it. Records made on a phone at the kerbside are the intended shape of this, not a back-office system.
The detailed technical requirements and the software available to meet them are published by Defra and the environment regulators, and they are still being finalised. Anything stated here beyond the published position would be guesswork, so it is not stated.
What it changes for a collector today
Records that today sit on paper in a cab, in a folder at the depot or in a customer’s filing cabinet become digital records held centrally. Nothing about the duty changes; what changes is that a movement which used to be evidenced only by whoever held the copy becomes visible as a matter of record-keeping.
A collector who already issues digital records has less to change when the requirement reaches carriers — and can say so on a claimed page today.
This page describes the published plan, not a fixed legal date. It will be updated when the published position changes.
Sources
- Digital waste tracking service (GOV.UK)
- Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive (GOV.UK)
- Waste duty of care: code of practice (GOV.UK)