Guide

Digital waste tracking

From October 2026, waste movements in the UK are recorded through DEFRA’s digital waste tracking service rather than on paper. This is what the service expects, what each party has to do, and where the four nations diverge.

What it replaces

Today a transfer of waste is documented by a waste transfer note — or, for hazardous waste, a consignment note — held by each party and produced on request. The records are real but scattered: two years of notes in a filing cabinet, no way for a regulator to see a chain end to end without asking every party in it.

Digital waste tracking replaces that with a single record per movement that every party writes to. The duty of care does not change. What changes is that the record is created as the movement happens, is validated when it is submitted, and is visible to the regulator without a request.

What every movement has to record

A tracked movement draws on several separate code lists. Free-text descriptions are not accepted where a code exists — a chemical name in a code field is rejected, not interpreted.

Every list above is published in full on this site, sourced from DEFRA’s own reference data — see all UK waste codes.

What changes, by role

Waste producers

The waste you hand over has to be classified correctly before it moves — the right EWC code, and an honest hazard assessment where the entry is a mirror pair. Errors that a paper note absorbed quietly now surface as a rejected movement.

Carriers and drivers

Movements are recorded as they happen rather than written up afterwards. That means capturing the load at the point of collection, on a device, including when there is no signal.

Brokers and dealers

Arranged movements have to be traceable end to end, including where the work is subcontracted. The chain is visible in a way a folder of paper notes never was.

Receiving sites

You confirm what actually arrived — quantity, code, container, and what you did with it. A load that does not match what was declared has to be recorded as it was, not as it was expected to be.

Hazardous waste is not simply harder — it is different

A hazardous load carries obligations a non-hazardous one does not: hazard property codes describing why it is hazardous, a consignment code, a consignee return to the regulator, and three-year retention rather than two. Where the waste contains persistent organic pollutants above their Annex IV limits, the components and their concentrations have to be declared as well.

Classification is the producer’s duty and it is where most of the risk sits. For a mirror entry, whether the hazardous half applies depends on what the waste actually contains — WM3 is explicit that the EWC entry alone does not settle it.

The four nations still differ

Digital tracking does not merge four regulatory regimes into one. Scotland still calls it special waste and issues consignment codes centrally. Wales still runs premises registration England abolished in 2016. Northern Ireland has its own statutes and a one-day consignee return, and a GB carrier registration does not cover movements there.

Compare the four nations side by side →

What to do before October 2026

1. Check your waste is classified correctly now. A wrong EWC code that paper tolerated becomes a rejected submission.
2. Confirm your carrier, broker and dealer registrations are current and cover every nation you operate in.
3. Work out how a movement gets recorded at the point it happens — on site, on a device, with no signal.
4. If you receive waste, decide how you will confirm what actually arrived when it differs from what was declared.