What is 'Receipt of Waste'? The DWT receiver requirement explained

"Receipt of Waste" is the part of Digital Waste Tracking that applies to the sites receiving waste — not the ones carrying it. If you run a permitted or licensed site, it is the record you make every time a load arrives. Here is exactly what it is, who it affects, what it must contain, and how the API works.

What is a Receipt of Waste?

Digital Waste Tracking splits along the two sides of every waste movement: the carrier who transports it, and the receiver who accepts it at a permitted destination. The Receipt of Waste is the receiver's half — the confirmation, logged into the government service, that a specific load actually landed at their site, with all the detail the regulators need to trace it.

Who has to record a Receipt of Waste?

The obligation follows the environmental permit or waste management licence. If your site is authorised to accept waste, you are a receiver and each arriving load needs a Receipt of Waste. This is the earlier of the two Digital Waste Tracking deadlines — receivers come into scope a full year before carriers.

Receivers must record a Receipt of Waste from October 2026 (January 2027 in Scotland), and each receipt must be submitted to Digital Waste Tracking within 48 hours — whether the accompanying transfer or consignment note is paper or digital. Carriers come into scope from October 2027.

What data does a Receipt of Waste contain?

Each receipt records what arrived, in what quantity, who brought it, and where it goes next. These are the core fields the service validates on submission:

Because the service checks these on the way in — valid EWC codes, a recognised carrier registration, a sensible disposal or recovery code — clean data at the point of receipt is what makes submission painless.

How is a Receipt of Waste different from a waste transfer note?

They describe different moments of the same movement:

• →Waste transfer note (WTN) — the paper (or digital) document that accompanies waste between parties, evidencing duty of care at the handover. A hazardous waste consignment note is its equivalent for hazardous waste.
• →Receipt of Waste — the receiver's own record, submitted into Digital Waste Tracking, confirming the load actually reached their permitted site and what happens to it there.

Once you are in scope, the tracking record replaces the paper note for that movement. The transfer note describes the intended handover; the Receipt of Waste is the receiver's confirmation of arrival in the government service.

Is there an API for Receipt of Waste?

The high-level flow is straightforward. The receiving site's software sends a receipt — the EWC codes, quantity, carrier, hazardous or POPs details and disposal/recovery code — to the API. The service validates it, and on success returns a Waste Tracking ID that identifies the received movement in the government record. That means a busy weighbridge or transfer station doesn't have to re-key every load into a web portal; the details captured on arrival go straight into the tracking service.

How to get ready for the Receipt of Waste requirement

• →Confirm you are a receiver — if your site holds an environmental permit or waste management licence to accept waste, the October 2026 deadline applies to you.
• →Clean your reference data now: correct EWC codes, carrier registration numbers, and the disposal/recovery codes your site uses, since each is validated on submission.
• →Capture the receipt details at the point of arrival — weighbridge or gate — so there is nothing to re-enter later.
• →Choose software that integrates with the Receipt of Waste API rather than re-typing every arriving load into the government portal.

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.