Defra Digital Waste Tracking
Receipt of waste, recorded digitally within two working days
Defra's Digital Waste Tracking service replaces paper-only recording of waste received at permitted sites with a digital record per load. MWaste prepares that record from the weighbridge ticket and the transfer note, and submits it when you switch submission on.
The rollout
Checked against Defra's published timetable on 08 October 2026. Later phases are Defra's stated expectations and may change — see gov.uk for the current position.
April 2026 In force
Public beta opened to all operators on a voluntary basis (phase one: waste received at permitted sites).
1 October 2026 In force
Mandatory for permitted waste receiving sites in England and Wales: each load of controlled waste received must be recorded in the Digital Waste Tracking service within two working days of receipt.
January 2027 Expected
Permitted receiving sites in Scotland and Northern Ireland due to join (outside MWaste's scope — England only).
October 2027 Expected
Expected to become mandatory for waste collectors — carriers, brokers and dealers (phase two; private beta from autumn 2026, public beta spring 2027).
Later Expected
Sites operating under registered exemptions are expected to enter the system in a later phase; no date has been published.
- Mode: DRY RUN (nothing sent)
- Queued 12 · due Wed 23:59 · overdue 0
- Outage: none · spreadsheet fallback ready
- Switch submission on → Owner only
What a receipt record contains
- ✓Producer name and the collection address
- ✓Waste description and European Waste Catalogue (EWC) code
- ✓Composition, physical form, quantity and container type
- ✓Carrier details and carrier registration
- ✓Receiving site and its permit
- ✓Recovery or disposal code
- ✓Hazardous properties and persistent organic pollutant information where applicable
- ✓The transfer note or consignment note the load moved under
MWaste already holds every one of these on the load, so the record is complete when the transfer note is — the completeness check runs before a note is issued and before a record is queued.
How MWaste handles it
Off by default
Receipt records are prepared and shown in a dry-run report. An Owner switches submission on from Admin → Digital Waste Tracking.
Two-working-day clock
Every queued record shows its deadline on the England and Wales working-day calendar; the menu pill counts what is due.
Outage mode
If Defra's service is unavailable, records stay queued and retry; past the deadline the spreadsheet fallback produces the file Defra accepts, and the outage is logged on each record.
Evidence kept
Each submission is logged with its Defra reference; the audit log and the regulator pack carry it.
Related: Waste transfer notes and DWT · Weighbridge
Questions
- Does DWT replace waste transfer notes?
- Not in phase one. Transfer notes and consignment notes continue to be required alongside the digital receipt record. MWaste issues both from the same load.
- When does the two-working-day clock start?
- The day after the waste is received, excluding weekends and bank holidays. A load received on a Monday is due by the end of Wednesday. MWaste shows the deadline on every queued record and counts working days on the England and Wales calendar.
- What if the service is down?
- MWaste keeps the record queued, retries, and shows an outage banner with the records affected. If Defra's service is unavailable past the deadline, the spreadsheet fallback produces the file Defra accepts, and the outage is logged against each record.
- Will MWaste send records without us knowing?
- No. Submission is off by default. An Owner switches it on from Admin → Digital Waste Tracking after reviewing the dry-run report, and every submission is logged with its Defra reference.
Get ready before your first mandatory record
Run the dry-run report on your real loads for a week. Switch on when it reads clean.