Digital Waste Transfer Notes for UK carriers
Skip the carbon-copy pad. A legally complete, signed Waste Transfer Note in under 30 seconds — fully offline, synced to the office the moment there's signal, branded PDF in your client's inbox before the truck leaves site.
Waste Transfer Note
WTN-000341 · signed ✓
No signal? The note is already legal. It syncs later.
The phone is the source of truth. Create notes, search waste codes, capture signatures with zero connectivity — the app tells you exactly what's synced and what's still on the phone.
Predictive search across all 842 official EWC codes with a trade-term dictionary built from how crews actually talk — plasterboard, muckaway, black bags, the lot. Works in airplane mode.
64px targets, no fiddly menus, a signature pad that works with a wet work glove. Repeat job? Three taps and a signature.
One movement, one record
From October 2026 DEFRA links the carrier's record and the receiver's record under one Waste Tracking ID — and checks that they match. Every WTN you sign mints a short code (like CW-7Q4K2M). Hand it to the site that tips your skip; the moment they log the receipt, both records are checked end-to-end — EWC codes and weight — and marked Reconciled ✓. If something differs, you both see Mismatch ⚠ before DEFRA ever does.
A legally-complete WTN is captured on the phone and gets its shareable movement code automatically. Nothing extra to do.
The tip or transfer station records the load against that code — one field on the receipt they were filing anyway.
ComplyWaste compares the two records instantly and shows Reconciled or Mismatch on both dashboards. No spreadsheets, no chasing.
Carrier-only and receiver-only tools can't do this — it only works when both ends share one record. That's why the carrier tier is free forever: get your sites and your carriers on it, and the paperwork checks itself.
DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking service is live (voluntary since April 2026). The obligations land in stages — here's what actually changes, without the scare stories:
Tips, transfer stations and MRFs in England, Wales and NI must record incoming waste digitally (Scotland: January 2027). Your paperwork becomes their data-entry problem — digital-ready carriers get tipped faster; paper creates friction at the gate.
DEFRA runs a private beta for carriers and software providers, then a public beta. ComplyWaste records every field the service needs today, and will plug in when the carrier API opens.
Carriers, brokers and dealers must record waste movements digitally. From this date a paper WTN no longer satisfies the legal duty — every van needs a working digital system, not a plan to get one.
Confused about the 2026 vs 2027 dates? Read: carrier vs receiver →
Fair question. The government service is a reporting database — built for the regulator and very good at being that. HMRC's free filing didn't end accounting software, because filing was never the hard part. Same here: the hard part is a driver on a muddy site at 7am. ComplyWaste is the workflow: 30-second capture in gloves, offline that actually works, codes your crew can find by typing “rubble”, your logo on the PDF in the client's inbox, two-year searchable records, drivers managed from one screen — and when DEFRA's carrier API opens, your notes flow through without re-keying. The portal is where data ends up. We're how it gets captured without slowing the round.
Free guides
Straight answers on Digital Waste Tracking, waste transfer notes and duty of care — with the October 2026 and 2027 deadlines explained properly.
Digital Waste Tracking (DWT) becomes mandatory for waste receivers in October 2026 and carriers in October 2027. Here's what it is and how to prepare.
Read →Waste receivers must use Digital Waste Tracking from October 2026; waste carriers from October 2027. Here's how to tell which you are — and what to do if you're both.
Read →A Receipt of Waste is a waste receiver's record of a load arriving at their permitted site, submitted to Digital Waste Tracking. Mandatory from October 2026.
Read →Free forever for one van · 14-day trial on paid plans, no card · cancel anytime · prices exclude VAT