If your site takes waste in, you have to report it digitally from 1 October 2026.
If you run a transfer station, skip yard or any other licensed waste receiving site, Defra’s Digital Waste Tracking Service becomes mandatory on 1 October 2026 in England and Wales. Sites first. Carriers come later.
QuickWasteNote isn’t a finished product yet. What’s real is integration work: connecting what you already run to the tracking service, quoted fixed-scope after a call.
No card details. No account to create.
Two different deadlines on this page
What actually happens
The same job, written down four times.
A booking comes in over the phone. Dispatch writes it on the board. The weighbridge operator fills in a ticket. Someone copies that onto a transfer note. Someone else copies it again onto an invoice. Five people, one job, the same reference details typed or written out at every step.
-
1
Booking
Phone call, written down
-
2
Dispatch
Written again, to the driver
-
3
Weighbridge ticket
Written again, on arrival
-
4
Transfer note
Copied again, for duty of care
-
5
Invoice
Copied again, to get paid
Digital waste tracking asks for that same data in a stricter format: EWC code, quantity, origin, destination, treatment outcome. It gets submitted to Defra as well as kept on your own systems. It’s a reasonable moment to enter it once instead of four times.
The regulation, explained
What changes, and when.
Phase 1
Waste receiving sites
- Applies to
- Permitted & licensed sites, transfer stations
- England & Wales
- 1 October 2026
- Public beta
- Open since 28 April 2026
Scotland and Northern Ireland follow in January 2027.
Phase 2
Carriers, brokers & dealers
- Applies to
- Registered waste carriers, brokers, dealers
- All nations
- October 2027
- Gap from Phase 1
- 12 months
You’ll see April 2027 quoted in places. It’s wrong.
Three ways to submit
By hand through GOV.UK’s own portal, by spreadsheet upload (a temporary concession, expected to last until at least October 2027), or by API.
What’s recorded
Per movement: EWC code, SIC code, a movement reference number, origin, destination, treatment outcome.
What it costs to register
£26 a year per legal entity that creates or edits records, once mandatory. That’s GOV.UK’s charge, not ours.
Digital tracking doesn’t replace the paper. GOV.UK is clear that waste transfer notes, Annex VII forms and hazardous waste consignment notes all continue alongside the digital service. Anyone telling you paper dies in October is wrong.
GOV.UK maintains a list of more than 70 software providers who’ve passed its Production Approval Tests, 14 scenarios each has to handle correctly. QuickWasteNote isn’t on that list. GOV.UK is also clear the list isn’t an endorsement: buying software is at your own risk, and responsibility for meeting the rules stays with you.
Sources: GOV.UK: Digital waste tracking guidance, GOV.UK: Digital Waste Tracking Service. Checked August 2026.
Fixed scope, not a subscription
Three shapes this work usually takes.
One connection
One workflow talking to the tracking service: your weighbridge software, your booking system, or a straight export that matches Defra’s format.
The full chain
Booking through to submission, wired together. A proper pipeline into the Digital Waste Tracking Service so nobody’s rekeying anything.
Keep it running
Once it’s built, someone needs to watch it. Monitoring, fixes, changes when Defra changes the rules, which they will.
All fixed-scope, quoted after a call. No subscriptions, no card details, no software to buy today.
Who’s behind it
Small and independent. Not a call centre.
QuickWasteNote isn’t a big vendor with a sales team, and it isn’t a call centre either. The work behind it is integrations: connecting one business’s systems to another’s, in whatever format the receiving side demands. That’s backed by freelance automation work going back eight years, and a background in cyber security.
New to waste. Not new to the underlying problem: getting one system’s version of the truth to speak cleanly to another system that doesn’t care how it was done before.
That means spending time in your yard understanding how your paperwork actually moves, rather than building something in isolation and hoping it fits. The offer isn’t a demo of a finished product. It’s a conversation about where the same details get written down twice.
Get in touch
Request a callback.
Tell me a bit about your site and I’ll get back to you, usually the same day. You’ll get a confirmation email, then a real reply after that.
Running collection rounds instead of a site?
Carriers, brokers and dealers have until October 2027. Nothing on this page is mandatory for you yet.
But the sites you deliver to are going digital this October, and a note that already matches their format will move faster at the weighbridge than one that doesn’t.
The carrier-facing product, replacing paper transfer note pads with something that generates the same record digitally, isn’t built yet. When there’s something real to try, this is where you’ll hear about it first. No firm price yet, and no promises about what it costs when it ships.
Questions
Straight answers.
When do I actually have to comply? +
It depends what you run. Permitted waste receiving sites (transfer stations, skip yards, anywhere licensed to take waste in) must report digitally from 1 October 2026 in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland follow in January 2027). Carriers, brokers and dealers have until October 2027, across all nations.
Does QuickWasteNote exist yet? +
No. There’s no app to download and no live software. What exists is one developer doing fixed-scope integration work now, for sites that need to be reporting digitally within weeks. The carrier-facing product is still being built.
Is QuickWasteNote an approved Digital Waste Tracking software provider? +
Not yet. GOV.UK keeps a list of software providers who’ve passed its Production Approval Tests, 14 scenarios each has to handle correctly. More than 70 are on it. QuickWasteNote isn’t, at the time of writing. GOV.UK is also clear the list isn’t an endorsement.
What does the £26 charge actually cover? +
Once digital tracking is mandatory, registering costs £26 a year, charged to each legal entity that creates or edits records in the service. It buys twelve months of rolling access. It has nothing to do with QuickWasteNote’s own fees, which are separate and quoted per project.
I’m a carrier. Do I need to do anything before October 2026? +
Not legally. Your deadline is October 2027, but the sites you deliver to are going digital this October, and a note in their format will move through the weighbridge faster than one that isn’t.
What does an integration project actually cost? +
Fixed-scope work, quoted after a call once I’ve seen what needs connecting. It could be one workflow, a full chain into the tracking service, or ongoing support once something’s built. Nothing is charged before a quote is agreed.