The UK's
waste mandate
is here.
Every waste movement in the UK must be digitally tracked from generation to final treatment. Waste Receiving Facilities are Cohort 1 — mandatory from October 2026. The Tracker annual licence is £2,495. Onboard 10 or more of your Waste Producers and that fee is fully rebated. Your compliance obligation becomes cost-neutral — and beyond 25 producers, it starts paying you.
Free for qualifying UK Waste Receiving Facilities · Live in 48 hours
Compliance that pays
for itself — and then pays you.
The annual Tracker licence for a Waste Receiving Facility is £2,495. Invite your Waste Producer clients to connect — they each pay £1,495 for their own account — and we share that revenue back to you. Onboard 10 producers and your licence is fully rebated. Go beyond 25 and Tracker becomes an annual income stream.
| Producers Onboarded | Your Annual Licence | What This Means | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1–9
Waste Producers
|
£2,495 / year
Standard annual licence
|
Full DWT compliance from day one
Digital records, audit trail, chain of custody and EA
reporting — everything required for Cohort 1.
|
Getting Started |
|
10+
Waste Producers
|
£0 / year
Full £2,495 rebated
|
Compliance costs you nothing
Your annual licence is fully refunded once you cross 10
connected producers. Most facilities with an established
client base get here within weeks.
|
Most Popular |
|
25+
Waste Producers
|
£0 + annual income
Rebate + revenue share begins
|
Compliance becomes a profit centre
Each producer licence is £1,495/year. Beyond 25 producers,
you receive an annual share of that revenue — confirmed at
onboarding based on your network size.
|
Maximum Earning |
A £1,495 producer licence isn't a cost. It's a cost-saving tool.
Your Waste Producer clients face their own mandate from April 2027. Their Tracker account doesn't just fulfil that — it includes digital waste segregation at source. The platform guides every team member to dispose of each waste type correctly in real time. Mis-segregation errors, vendor reclassification charges and disposal surcharges disappear. For most producers, the licence pays for itself through cost avoidance alone.
The UK generates 200 million tonnes of waste per year. Most of it was invisible.
Digital Waste Tracking was introduced by Defra to close the gaps that allow waste crime, illegal dumping, and misreporting to flourish. For the first time, every waste movement must be digitally logged — creating an unbroken chain from producer to treatment site.
Waste Crime Costs the UK £1bn+ Annually
Illegal dumping, misclassification, and ghost shipments were almost impossible to detect with paper-based systems. DWT creates a verified digital audit trail that closes these loopholes permanently.
Paper Consignment Notes Are No Longer Legal
From October 2026, paper waste transfer notes and hazardous waste consignment notes are replaced by mandatory digital records for all waste-receiving sites. No exceptions, no grace period extensions.
Enabling the UK's Circular Economy Agenda
DWT gives Defra and policymakers real-time data on waste flows across the UK for the first time. This data underpins the circular economy strategy — knowing exactly where waste goes is the foundation of reducing it.
Your Compliance Depends on Your Clients' Too
Waste Receiving Facilities can only record a compliant load if the Waste Producer has provided a verified digital record. This creates a compliance chain — your facility's status is tied to every client you receive waste from.
Penalties for Non-Compliance Are Real
The Environment Agency has enforcement powers including improvement notices, permit suspension and prosecution. Digital gaps in your waste records are now immediately visible to regulators in real time.
Early Movers Gain a Competitive Advantage
Facilities that are DWT-ready before the mandate becomes enforced will attract more clients, pass audits faster, and be positioned to onboard the wave of Waste Producers scrambling to connect when Cohort 2 arrives.
What exactly is Digital Waste Tracking?
DWT is a UK government system requiring every controlled waste movement to be logged with a unique digital tracking ID — from generation through transport to final treatment. It replaces paper consignment notes entirely.
Think of it as a digital passport for every skip, drum and container of waste that leaves a site. The entire chain — producer, carrier, receiving facility — must contribute to a single, verified digital record that the Environment Agency can access in real time.
DWT is a statutory programme introduced through the Environment Act 2021. Defra is the lead policy department, with the Environment Agency responsible for enforcement across the UK.
The programme aims to eliminate waste crime, improve data quality on waste flows, and support the transition to a circular economy.
Read official Defra guidance2025
Private Beta
Selected waste operators testing the system with Defra.
2026
Public Beta Opens
All permitted/licensed waste-receiving sites can register and begin onboarding.
Open Now2026
Mandatory for Receiving Sites
All permitted/licensed waste-receiving sites must digitally record every incoming load. Non-compliance = enforcement action.
2027
Full Ecosystem Rollout
Carriers, brokers, dealers and exempt sites. The entire UK waste chain goes digital.
The digital chain every waste movement must follow.
From the moment waste is generated to its final treatment — every step requires a verified digital record. Without it, the entire chain breaks. Step through the process below.
Waste is generated.
A digital record is created.
Using Tracker, key data is logged at the source the moment waste is created — EWC code, composition, weight, origin. This creates a verified digital record for every container before it leaves the facility.
The carrier receives a verified digital record — instantly.
Your waste carrier receives your verified digital record from Tracker and instantly generates a compliant digital consignment note for transport. No paperwork. No phone calls. No delays.
Waste is transported with a fully compliant digital record.
The carrier transports the waste with the digital consignment note attached to the movement. Every kilometre of the journey is part of the verified DWT audit trail — from collection point to receiving facility.
Your facility logs every incoming load into the DWT system.
As a Waste Receiving Facility, you are Cohort 1. From October 2026, you must digitally record every load you receive. Tracker does this automatically — every collection logged, every record timestamped and Environment Agency-ready.
Regulators gain full visibility for the first time.
The entire waste chain is now visible to Defra and the Environment Agency in real time. Waste crime is prevented. Circular economy policy is informed by real data. And gaps in your facility's digital records are immediately visible.
Manual data = compliance breakdown.
Without a digital record from the Waste Producer, the carrier cannot legally create a compliant DWT submission. The entire process grinds to a halt. Your facility cannot accept the load. Your client's operations stop.
October 2026.
That's your deadline.
Are you ready?
Waste Receiving Facilities are Cohort 1. Compliance is not optional — it is statutory under the Environment Act 2021. The Environment Agency will be checking digital records from day one.
Live in 48 hours.
Register Your Facility
Create your free account in minutes. Just your facility details and you're registered in the DWT-ready Tracker platform.
Configure Waste Streams
Add your approved waste streams, EWC codes and disposal routes. Our guided setup aligns directly with the UK DWT data requirements.
Invite Waste Producers
Send your producer clients a simple invite link. They connect to your digital chain in one click — no IT team, no integration work required.
Track, Report & Earn
Every waste movement is logged digitally. Your Environment Agency audit trail builds automatically. And your profit share accumulates with every new client.
Facilities already registered.
The Spring 2026 public beta is open. Here's what facilities said after completing pre-registration.
Registration took less than five minutes. I was expecting it to be like every other compliance system — complicated, requires IT, three forms to fill in. It wasn't any of those things. We're configured and ready to go before October with no fuss.
The commercial model is the part that surprised me most. I expected to pay for DWT compliance and write it off as overhead. The rebate structure means once I've connected my main producers, we're cost-neutral. That changes the conversation completely when I'm talking to my finance director.
What I appreciate is how straightforward the producer onboarding looks. I've already sent the invite link to six of our main clients. None of them pushed back — when you explain that they need to be digital by April 2027 anyway and this costs them nothing to start with, it's an easy conversation.
Every question you're actually thinking.
As an MD running a Waste Receiving Facility, here's what we hear most. No jargon, no fluff.
The annual Tracker licence for a Waste Receiving Facility is £2,495. There is no setup fee and no monthly charge on top of that. The rebate works as follows: each Waste Producer you invite onto the platform pays £1,495 for their own account. Once you have onboarded 10 or more producers, your full £2,495 annual licence is refunded. Beyond 25 producers, you begin receiving an annual profit share from the producer licence revenue your network generates. Specific revenue share rates are confirmed at onboarding based on your network size.
Most facilities are fully live within 48 hours. Registration takes under 5 minutes. Configuring your waste streams and EWC codes typically takes 1–2 hours with our guided setup. Sending invite links to your Waste Producer clients takes minutes. Our onboarding team is available for a live call if you'd prefer a hand-held setup — most clients take us up on this and it's included at no cost.
Tracker is built to be fully compliant with the Defra Digital Waste Tracking specification. All records generated through Tracker are formatted to meet the national DWT submission requirements for Cohort 1 receiving sites. We monitor government guidance updates continuously and update the platform as requirements evolve — you don't need to track regulatory changes yourself.
Your historical paper records remain valid for the periods they cover. Tracker is forward-looking — from the moment you go live, all new waste movements are logged digitally. There is no requirement to retrospectively digitise historical records. We do offer a CSV import tool if you want to bring in existing data for continuity, but it is not a compliance requirement.
Waste Producers pay £1,495 per year for their own Tracker account — this is not charged to you. That licence gives them the ability to transmit waste electronically to your facility, which they will need to do from April 2027 under Cohort 2, plus digital waste segregation at source that guides their teams to dispose of each waste type correctly in real time. For most producers, this eliminates mis-segregation errors, vendor reclassification charges and disposal surcharges they're already absorbing. The licence typically pays for itself through cost avoidance. Connecting through your facility gives them a head start on their own mandatory compliance.
Once you've onboarded 10 Waste Producers, you receive a full rebate against your annual Tracker licence. Beyond 25 producers, you begin receiving an annual profit share based on the licence revenue generated by your network. The more clients you bring onto the platform, the higher your share. Specific tier amounts are discussed during onboarding — but facilities managing 50+ producer relationships can generate meaningful recurring revenue.
Your facility.
Compliant.
Free.
Register your Waste Receiving Facility and get full access to Tracker's UK DWT compliance platform at no cost. Onboard your Waste Producer clients and start earning.
Register Your Facility
Free access for qualifying UK Waste Receiving Facilities. Under 5 minutes to complete.
By registering you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Offer available to qualifying UK Waste Receiving Facilities only. Profit share terms available on request.