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The waste tonnage return, without the dread

The Environment Agency's waste tonnage return is one of the jobs permitted sites dread most. Consigns builds it from the collections you already booked through us, so most of the numbers are done before you open it.

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What the waste tonnage return is

If you run a permitted waste site in England, the Environment Agency asks you for a return each period. It sets out how much waste you took in and how much you sent out, broken down by EWC code and by disposal or recovery code, alongside your site, permit, and Technically Competent Manager details. The EA uses it to check your permit and to build the national waste figures.

It has to be filed on the EA's own version 17 spreadsheet, emailed to the national returns inbox, and it is due within a set window after each quarter, or once a year on annual permits. A late or wrong-version return is a breach of your permit, so it is not one to get wrong.

Why it has such a bad name

It only works in Excel. The form refuses to run properly in Google Sheets or Numbers, and it has to be sent back in the exact Excel format.

It fights you. A built-in validation engine will not let you submit if a single cell is missing, malformed, or off the approved lists.

Every code has to be exact. EWC codes and disposal or recovery codes must match the EA's own libraries, not roughly, exactly.

The tonnages come from everywhere. Adding up a quarter of movements from notes, spreadsheets and memory is where the hours go, and where the mistakes hide.

How Consigns takes the stress out

Every collection you book through Consigns is already recorded with its EWC code, its disposal or recovery code, and its weight. That is exactly what the return is asking for. So instead of digging a quarter of tonnage out by hand, Consigns adds it up for you, per waste type and code, and lays it out the way the EA return expects.

The numbers are added up for you. Received and removed tonnage, totalled per EWC and per disposal or recovery code from your booked jobs.
The codes are already right. Because each job was booked with a proper EWC and D or R code, they line up with the EA's libraries instead of needing a hunt.
It matches the current form. The layout follows the EA's version 17 return, so you are not reformatting anything by hand.
The deadlines are no surprise. Consigns knows the quarterly and annual windows, so the return is ready when you need it.

The honest caveat: Consigns can only report on the waste that moved through Consigns. Any load you took in or sent out without booking it here will not be in these figures, and you will need to add it before you file. We do the heavy lifting on the jobs we know about; the jobs we do not know about are still yours to include.

You are still in charge of the return

Consigns builds the return from your data. It does not file it for you, and it cannot know about waste you handled elsewhere. Before you send anything to the Environment Agency, check the figures, add any movements that did not go through Consigns, and confirm your site and permit details are right. The return is your legal document. Consigns just takes out the hours of adding up.

Book your collections through Consigns and the tonnage report stops being a quarterly scramble. The more of your movements run through Consigns, the more of the return is done for you.

How much does it cost?

Waste tonnage reporting is part of the compliance tools in Consigns. Every plan starts with a free 14-day trial, so you can book real jobs and see the report build up. See the current plans on our pricing page, or start your free trial.