Digital waste tracking becomes law in England from 1 October 2026 — for permitted sites only

What has changed

Digital waste tracking has been an announced policy for several years. It is now law in England. The Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/729) come into force on 1 October 2026. The Regulations extend to England and Wales but apply in England.

The core duty sits in regulation 4. It applies when the operator of a permitted facility receives controlled waste at that facility. The operator must record the information specified in Part 2 of Schedule 1 in a digital waste record, and check that the information has been entered into the digital waste tracking system.

The deadline is tight. Those steps must be completed by the end of the second working day after the day the load is received. That applies to controlled waste and to hazardous controlled waste alike.

The Regulations also designate a system operator, set out what happens during a system outage, provide a route for correcting records, allow fees to be charged for use of the system, and give the Environment Agency monitoring functions.

Who is affected

The duty applies to you if you operate a facility in England that holds an environmental permit or waste management licence and accepts controlled waste at that site. In practice that means landfill operators, waste treatment and transfer stations, recycling facilities, materials recovery facilities, and other permitted receiving sites.

If that is you, the practical work is not just registering for the system. It is making sure that, for every load arriving at your gate, you can capture the specified information and get it into the system within two working days. That usually means changing your weighbridge and gate procedures, deciding who is accountable for the entry, and building a check step so a missed entry is caught before the deadline passes rather than at audit.

You will also depend on information supplied by the carrier and the producer delivering the load. Where that information is incomplete at the gate, the deadline still runs. It is worth telling your regular carriers now what you will need from them from October.

If you cannot use the digital system

Part 3 provides for operators who are digitally excluded. You apply to the Environment Agency, which assigns a digitally excluded number and tells you what it is. The Agency maintains a public list of digitally excluded persons.

If you are digitally excluded you must instead make a written record of the specified information for each load of controlled waste received, within two working days of receipt, and include your assigned number on it. Those records must be retained for at least 3 years from the date the record is made.

The exclusion is not permanent. If you cease to qualify, the Agency removes you from the list within 28 days, and there is a 28-day period during which the written-record requirements continue to apply before you move fully onto the digital system.

Enforcement: offences and civil sanctions

Part 5 creates criminal offences for an operator of a permitted facility who fails to comply with the recording, deadline and related requirements. An offence is punishable with a fine, on summary conviction or on conviction on indictment. Liability extends to officers of a body, and to individuals in partnerships and unincorporated associations, where the offence was committed with their consent or connivance, or was attributable to their neglect.

Alongside the criminal offences, the Environment Agency may impose civil sanctions:

• a fixed monetary penalty of £1,000;
• a variable monetary penalty, in an amount the Agency determines under Part 2 of Schedule 2, taking account of factors including environmental impact, any benefit gained from the contravention, culpability and compliance history; and
• a compliance notice requiring specified steps within a specified time.

The Agency may also serve enforcement cost recovery notices for the costs of investigation, administration and legal advice. Penalties are recoverable as a civil debt or, on a court order, as if payable under that order. Part 6 provides appeal rights against these decisions, and there is a public enforcement register.

What to do before 1 October 2026

If you operate a permitted receiving site in England:

• Confirm which of your sites hold an environmental permit or waste management licence and will therefore be in scope.
• Register for the digital waste tracking system, or apply to the Environment Agency for a digitally excluded number if you cannot use it.
• Map your gate and weighbridge process against the two-working-day deadline, and name the person accountable for entry and for the check step.
• Tell your regular carriers and producers what information you will need from them at the point of delivery.
• Check that the specified information in Part 2 of Schedule 1 is captured by your existing systems, and close any gaps.

If you do not operate a permitted receiving site, no action is required by these Regulations. Keep meeting your waste duty of care and watch for the legislation that would extend tracking to producers and carriers.