Guide

Weighbridges and digital waste tracking

You don't need a new weighbridge, or software that talks to yours. Defra want the weight of each load on its record. Most yards type the ticket weight in at the gate; some weigh by skip size and say the weight is an estimate.

What Defra ask for

• A weight and its unit (grams, kilograms or tonnes) for every waste item on the load.
• Whether that weight is estimated. A skip-size weight is an estimate; a weighbridge ticket isn't.
• The record within two working days of the day after the load arrives.

Three ways yards do it

• Key the ticket weight. The weighbridge prints it; whoever is on the gate types it into the load. A few seconds.
• Weigh by skip size. No weighbridge: set your own tonnes for each skip size once, and mark the weight as estimated.
• Type up the day. Sites with nobody on the gate type each load from the haulier's list or the tickets afterwards.

What Byrne Waste Tracking does and doesn't do

It doesn't read a weighbridge: you type the ticket weight, or pick your skip size. It remembers your regular customers, carriers and waste codes, so after the first load it's usually the time and the weight. Each load is checked against Defra's rules before it saves.

Worked example

A weighbridge ticket

An 8-yard skip of mixed builders' waste comes over the weighbridge at 09:30 on a Thursday. The ticket is numbered T-10482 and gives the load as 3.2 tonnes. (A made-up load.)

• Your reference: T-10482, so the record and the ticket can be matched later.
• Weight: 3.2, unit Tonnes.
• Estimated: No. It came off a weighbridge.
• R or D code: R13 for the 3.2 tonnes, if you store it and send it on for recovery.

On Defra's spreadsheet that last part is written as one line: R13 = 3.2 = Tonnes = No. The final No says the weight is not an estimate. The record is due by 23:59 on Monday, two working days after the day it came in.

Worked example

Going by skip size

A yard with no weighbridge sets a weight for each skip size once, and uses it every time. Say it decides a 6-yard skip of mixed waste counts as 2 tonnes. That figure is made up: set your own from what your skips really carry.

• Weight: 2, unit Tonnes.
• Estimated: Yes. It wasn't weighed.

On Defra's spreadsheet: R13 = 2 = Tonnes = Yes. An estimated weight is allowed, as long as the record says it is estimated. Using the same figure for the same skip size every time keeps your records consistent.

The commonest slip

Kilograms typed as tonnes

The ticket says 3,200 kg. At the gate it goes in as 3,200 with the unit left on Tonnes. That is a thousand times too heavy.

• Not sent yet: fix it, or delete it and key it again. In Byrne Waste Tracking each load waits about 20 minutes after it is saved before it goes, so a typo spotted at the gate can still be put right.
• Already with Defra, and you found it: correct it within one month of finding it, using the load's Defra ID.
• Defra or your software flagged it: correct it within the same two working days.

Don't send the load again as a new one. Defra keep the first record and don't remove duplicates. Correcting a record.

More than one waste

One lorry, three wastes

A lorry tips three different wastes. That is one record with three waste items, each with its own code, its own weight and its own estimated Yes or No. A day's loads are never added together into one record either: every load is its own.

Nobody on the gate

Typing up the day afterwards

A site with nobody on the gate can type each load in later from the tickets or the haulier's list. Each load still goes in under the date and time it really arrived, and is still due within two working days of the day after it arrived. Never change the date to make a load look on time.

Questions people ask

Source: GOV.UK, report receipt of waste. Defra's helpline: 03000 203 781.