Guide

Do I still need waste transfer notes?

Yes. Digital waste tracking is an extra record, not a replacement. Waste transfer notes, hazardous waste consignment notes and Annex VII forms carry on alongside it, and GOV.UK gives no end date for them.

What carries on

• Waste transfer notes for non-hazardous waste, exactly as now.
• Hazardous waste consignment notes, and the consignment code goes on the digital record too.
• Annex VII forms for waste that crosses a border.

What is new

• A permitted site that receives waste reports each load to Defra's service within two working days, counted from the day after it arrives (England and Wales since 1 October 2026; Scotland and Northern Ireland from January 2027).
• Most of what goes on the digital record is already on the transfer note: the carrier and their registration, the waste code, the weight. That is why many sites key it straight from the note at the gate.
• There are two legal ways to report: software that uses Defra's API, or Defra's own spreadsheet template. Both explained.

Worked example

One skip, one note, one record

A skip lorry tips an 8-yard skip of mixed builders' waste at your yard at 09:30 on a Thursday. The driver hands over the waste transfer note, as before. You keep that note on file the same way you did before 1 October.

The digital record for the load is keyed from the same note at the gate. Most of it copies straight across:

• Your reference: the transfer note or weighbridge ticket number, so the note and the record can be matched later.
• The carrier and their registration number, and the lorry's registration.
• The waste description and EWC code, for example 17 09 04 for mixed construction and demolition waste.
• The weight, and whether it is estimated or off a weighbridge.
• Your R or D code: what your yard does with it, such as R13 if you store it and send it on for recovery.

That record is due at Defra by 23:59 on Monday. Friday and Monday are the two working days after the day it came in, because the weekend doesn't count. The note itself carries on as a separate paper record.

Worked example

Thirty loads and a season ticket

Say one regular customer is covered by a season ticket: the same waste, between the same people, for up to a year. On a busy Monday, 30 loads tip at your yard, and twelve of them are that customer's.

On paper, the season ticket still covers those twelve, as it did before. The digital side is different. Every one of the 30 loads is its own record, and a day's loads are never added together into one line. Many loads can go to Defra in one submission, but each keeps its own arrival time, weight and reference.

All 30 are due by 23:59 on Wednesday. Loads that come in on a Friday are due by 23:59 on Tuesday. Bank holiday due dates, worked out.

Hazardous loads

The consignment note carries on too

If a load has a hazardous waste code, asbestos for example, the hazardous waste consignment note goes with it as before. The consignment note's code also goes on that load's digital record. GOV.UK say the waste covered by each consignment note is entered as a separate entry in the service.

A non-hazardous load has no consignment note. Its record gives Defra's reason for having no code instead of leaving the box empty. Hazardous waste and digital waste tracking.

When the copy is wrong

A mistake copied from the note

Gate typos happen. Say a waste code was copied wrong from the note, and you spot it a week later, after the load has gone to Defra.

• You found it yourself: correct it as soon as you can, and within one month of finding it.
• Defra or your software flagged it: correct it within the same two working days.
• Correct the record Defra already hold, using its Defra ID. Don't send the load again as a new one: Defra keep the first record and don't remove duplicates.

Correcting a record, step by step.

Questions people ask

Source: GOV.UK, check if you need to report the waste you receive.