Waste criminals are running out of places to hide as the
government launches its Digital Waste Tracking service to follow
every piece of permitted waste across the country in real time.
As part of its major crackdown on waste crime under the
government's Waste Crime Action
Plan, new laws being laid in parliament will require
businesses to create a real-time audit trail for the waste
they handle.
At the moment, waste consignments are tracked using a largely
paper based and outdated system that is overly bureaucratic for
legitimate operators and fails to give law enforcement the vital
intelligence they need to build cases against waste criminals.
The new approach for tracking waste
will provide faster, more reliable data,
helping to identify suspicious activity and
support enforcement bodies to target action against rogue
operators breaking the law. It will also make it easier for waste
producers and legitimate operators to meet their reporting
requirements.
The service will become mandatory for permitted waste receiving
sites in England, Northern Ireland and Wales from October 2026
and Scotland in January 2027, giving businesses time to prepare
for the new requirements. Phase 1 will apply to around 12,000
permitted waste receiving sites. As the service expands, over
100,000 operators are set to be in scope.
, Minister for Nature,
said:
Waste crime is a wicked business and the paper system we
inherited was not fit for purpose. Through our Waste Crime Action
Plan, we are tightening the net on the waste cowboys.
Our Digital Waste Tracking Service will give authorities better,
more reliable evidence to go after rogue operators and shut them
down.
It will also speed paperwork up for legitimate operators and cut
red tape at the same time.
Executive Director of the Environmental Services
Association (ESA), Jacob Hayler, said:
Today marks a significant milestone of progress towards
implementing Digital Waste Tracking, which is another important
weapon in the arsenal needed to fight waste crime.
Implemented successfully, Digital Waste Tracking should make it
easier for waste producers to be sure that they are dealing with
legitimate operators, while also providing useful and timely data
to regulators to help them crack down on cowboys.
ESA urges operators across the industry to engage with the beta
testing phase, and we look forward to working with Government to
refine and successfully roll out the process ahead of mandatory
adoption.
From October 2026, the new single, streamlined way of
recording movements will commence, starting with
permitted waste receiving sites. This will be expanded
to other operators in the waste industry under a
phased approach.
A voluntary beta test for the digital waste tracking service
opens on 28 April, with permitted waste receiving sites
and software developers for the waste sector encouraged
to take part and help refine the system ahead of full
rollout.
Waste crime action
Waste crime is a growing problem across the
country, costing the UK economy around £1 billion each year
which the government is determined to tackle.
Through our new Waste Crime Action
Plan, we are stopping waste criminals in their tracks and
making them pay through:
- Points on driving licence for fly-tipping
- Clean-up squads for offenders Police-like powers for EA
enforcers
- We are also giving the Environment Agency the tools they need
to fight back – with an additional £45 million over the
next three years to strengthen their enforcement budget.
Notes to editors:
- Similar legislation has already been laid in
Scotland and Wales.
- Further information is available.
