Under 100 days to go: what receiving sites must do before 1 October 2026
Mandatory digital waste tracking for receiving sites is now under 100 days away. Here is what you have to get done before 1 October 2026, in what order, and why it is tighter than it looks.
The clock on digital waste tracking is now reading under 100 days (at the time of writing). From 1 October 2026, every permitted site in England that takes waste in must record what it receives on DEFRA's digital service. That is not a date in the distance any more. It is this autumn.
If you run a permitted site that takes waste in, a recycling centre, a transfer station or a treatment site, you are first in the queue. Wales and Northern Ireland start on the same day, and Scotland follows in January 2027. The carriers who bring the waste to you do not join until 1 October 2027, so for a whole year the duty sits with the sites, not the lorries.
There is more to do than it looks
Here is the catch. Getting ready is not one job, it is several, and some of them have lead times you do not control. With under 100 days left, the order you do them in matters.
Before 1 October 2026, a site that takes waste in needs to:
- Choose a system that can send records to DEFRA, and get it set up. Start this one first. Picking software, moving your records into it and getting it talking to the service is not a same-week job.
- Register for the service. There is a small annual fee for each business, and we break it down in our guide to the cost.
- Get your intake records off paper. If your weighbridge tickets and consignee returns live in a folder, finding and logging each load in time becomes a daily scramble.
- Train whoever signs the waste in. The person on the gate at 7am is the person the deadline lands on.
- Test it before go-live, not on the first morning. You want a dry run while mistakes are still free.
And then it has to be quick
Logging a load is not a once-a-month catch-up. You record each load soon after it arrives, not weeks later. We set out the exact window in why receiving sites go first. The point for now is simple. If your records are still on paper, you will feel it every single day.
What if you also carry waste?
Plenty of operators do both. They collect waste and they take it in. If that is you, the carrier deadline of 1 October 2027 is not the one that matters first. Because you receive waste at a permitted site, the 2026 date binds you. The earlier duty wins. You can check which deadline applies to your business with our free readiness checker.
Do not throw the paper out
One thing that keeps tripping people up. Digital tracking does not scrap your consignment notes or transfer notes. The Environment Agency has been clear that they carry on alongside the service. For now you do both, so do not change your paper process on the day the service goes live.
What to do this week
With the deadline under 100 days out, the useful move is not to panic, it is to start. Check your deadline, pick your system, and get one load logged in a test before the autumn rush. The sites that find 1 October 2026 easy will be the ones who went digital early.
Our digital waste tracking guide has the full picture. And Consigns keeps your intake records digital and in one searchable place, built to file to DEFRA for you, so the deadline is one you keep without thinking about it.