How to comply with Digital Waste Tracking: a step-by-step guide

Complying with Digital Waste Tracking is a short, ordered sequence: confirm which duty applies to you and when, enrol for the DEFRA service, capture the right data for every movement, submit receipts on time, reconcile both sides, and keep your records. This guide walks through each step in the order you should tackle them.

How do you comply with Digital Waste Tracking?

Digital Waste Tracking (DWT) is DEFRA's government service that replaces paper waste transfer notes and hazardous consignment notes with a single digital record of each waste movement. It was available to use voluntarily from April 2026, and is now mandatory for receivers in England and Wales (1 January 2027 in Northern Ireland and Scotland). The service is not free — there is a £26 a year charge per organisation (legal entity). The steps below are the same whichever side of the movement you sit on — only the date and the exact action differ.

Step 1 — Work out which duty applies to you, and when

The date that binds you follows your role in the chain, not the calendar alone. If you run a site authorised to accept waste, you are a receiver and were caught first, in 2026. If you transport, arrange, trade or produce waste, your duty lands a year later, in 2027. Firms that do both — a skip-hire or clearance business that also runs a transfer station — have both duties, on their two separate dates, so plan for the earliest one.

Step 2 — Enrol for the DEFRA service and set up your organisation

Before you can record anything you need an account on the service and your organisation configured — legal entity, the sites you operate, and the environmental permit or waste management licence references that authorise each site. If you submit through software rather than by hand, this is also where the connection between your system and DEFRA is established, so the records you capture can flow straight through. Enrolment carries a £26 a year charge per organisation, so DEFRA's service is not free. The service was open voluntarily from April 2026, so firms could prove the plumbing before their own duty became mandatory.

Step 3 — Capture the required data for every movement or receipt

The digital record is only valid if the data is accurate, so this step matters more than any other. The EWC (List of Wastes) code must be the correct six-digit code for the material, coded values must be exactly right, and the parties must be identifiable. Capturing this at the point of movement — at the gate, the weighbridge or in the cab — rather than reconstructing it later is what keeps the record clean and submittable.

Step 4 — Receivers: submit each Receipt of Waste within 2 working days

The receipt is the digital equivalent of confirming what came through the gate. It carries the same data captured in step 3 — description, EWC code, quantity, parties, permit and dates — and must reach the service within 2 working days (excluding weekends and bank holidays), starting the day after the waste is received, not weeks later. Because the clock starts the day after receipt, the practical answer is to record the load as it lands, at the weighbridge or gate, so nothing slips past the window.

Step 5 — Reconcile the carrier note against the receiver receipt

Digital Waste Tracking creates one record per movement with several parties attached, so the carrier and receiver views of the same load should line up. When the description, code, quantity or parties differ between the two sides, that is a signal to investigate — a mis-keyed code, a wrong quantity or a load that never arrived. Reconciling as you go keeps your records defensible and your duty of care intact, rather than discovering mismatches at audit.

Step 6 — Keep your records for the required periods

Moving to a digital record does not shorten how long you must keep evidence available for inspection. Keep waste transfer note records for a minimum of two years, and hazardous waste consignment note records for a minimum of three years, ready to produce if your regulator asks. Storing each movement digitally makes this straightforward — the record is the retention.

Comply in six steps: know your duty and date (receivers required since 1 October 2026; carriers, brokers, dealers and producers October 2027), enrol for the DEFRA service (£26 a year per organisation), capture the required data per movement, submit each Receipt of Waste within 2 working days, reconcile both sides, and keep records (WTNs two years, hazardous consignment notes three years).

What you have to have in place — a quick checklist

• →Your role and date confirmed — receiver (2026) or carrier / broker / dealer / producer (2027), or both.
• →An account on the DEFRA service, with your organisation, sites and permit references set up.
• →A reliable way to capture the data — waste description, EWC code, quantity, parties, permit and dates — at the point of movement.
• →A submission route that gets each Receipt of Waste to DEFRA within 2 working days (if you receive waste).
• →A reconciliation habit so carrier and receiver records match, and record retention for the required periods.

Software can carry most of this for you. ComplyWaste captures waste transfer notes and Receipts of Waste on a phone, offline at the gate or in the cab, stores every receipt in DEFRA's exact format, and its receiver integration files receipts to DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking service automatically — with a free capture tier to start on. That means the 2-working-day clock is handled, the data is captured in the right shape, and nothing needs re-keying later. This is optional: you can comply by following the steps above however you record your movements.

This guide is general information about Digital Waste Tracking, not legal advice. Check your obligations against the primary sources below and, if in doubt, your environmental regulator.