Digital waste tracking: guidance and information
Published 25 October 2026 · every legal claim below checked against the source on 25 October 2026
What changed
Access the ‘Report receipt of waste’ service, and find information about digital waste tracking for licensed and permitted sites that handle controlled waste.
Published by Defra on 23 October 2026. Read the source itself before acting on it: Digital waste tracking: guidance and information.
Who it binds
The collection itself binds nobody. It gathers in one place the guidance for a duty that already applies: the operator of a permitted or licensed site in England or Wales that receives controlled waste must record each load it receives and report it to DEFRA through the Report receipt of waste service. That is phase 1 of digital waste tracking and it reaches receiving sites only. Waste carriers, brokers and dealers have no reporting duty in this phase, and producers of waste have none at all. A load you carry or arrange is reported by the site that receives it, not by you.
In Wales the duty applies the same way, with one difference written into the Welsh regulations: a local authority household waste recycling centre is outside the Welsh phase 1. In Scotland the duty starts on 1 January 2027 under its own made regulations. Northern Ireland has stated the same target date, but no made rule has been found, so treat it as an intention until one appears.
When it bites
The duty has been in force since 1 October 2026 in England, under SI 2026/729, and in Wales, under WSI 2026/105. Both instruments are made law, so the date did not depend on anything else happening. Each load received has to be reported within two working days of receipt.
The collection page was published on 23 October 2026 and changes no date. Its four guidance pages are dated 19 and 23 October 2026, and the list of software providers for the service was updated on 23 October 2026: it names 237 providers, DutyOS among them. If you are a receiving site and have not started reporting, the duty applied to you from 1 October, not from the day this collection appeared.
DutyOS is on GOV.UK's list of software providers for the Report receipt of waste service and is not affiliated with DEFRA or the Environment Agency.