Defra Digital Waste Tracking, built into the software you already run.
Every vendor in this market will sell you their platform on a monthly subscription. If you already have software your team knows, there is a third route, and Defra publishes the specification for it openly. This is how it works, what it costs and what your system needs to be able to do.
The two deadlines
Digital waste tracking is arriving in phases, and which one applies to you decides how much time you have.
Permitted and licensed waste receiving sites. You have to report the waste you receive.
Waste carriers, brokers and dealers. Movements you carry or arrange come into scope.
If you run a receiving site, Phase 1 is the one that matters and it is close. Defra has said a spreadsheet route will stay available until at least October 2027 for operators with no suitable software, but treating a spreadsheet as the long-term plan means someone re-keying data every day, for ever.
Three ways to submit
Defra accepts waste data three ways, and they are not equivalent in terms of day-to-day effort.
- The online portal. Someone types each movement into Defra's own web form. No build cost, but it is manual data entry that scales directly with your volume.
- CSV upload. You export a file and upload it. Cheaper than typing, but it is still a person remembering to do a thing, and export formats drift.
- API integration. Your system talks to Defra directly. The movement is recorded once, where your team already records it, and the submission happens on its own.
The API is the only one of the three where nobody has to remember anything. It is also the only route where compliance is a property of your system rather than a task on someone's list.
Subscribe or integrate
This is the decision most operators are actually making, and it is usually framed for them by whoever is selling. Both routes are legitimate. They just cost differently and leave you in different positions.
If you have nothing today, buy something. If you already run a weighbridge system, a job management system or your own bespoke platform that your team works in every day, adding a second one is the expensive answer, not the safe one.
What your software needs to be able to do
Not every system is worth integrating. Before we quote anything, we check for these, and we will tell you honestly if the answer is no.
- It already records the movements, with the waste description, quantity and the parties involved.
- It has a database we can read, or an API, or we can add one to it.
- Someone can authorise a change to it, whether that is your own team, your vendor or us.
- It runs somewhere a scheduled job can reach the internet.
That last one catches people out. A system running on a single machine in a portacabin can still work, but it changes the design.
How we do it
We build the connection, test it against Defra's service, and take it through to accepted submissions in production. Then we hand it over documented, so it is not a black box you depend on us for.
- Map your data to theirs. Your fields are not their fields. This is most of the work and where the accuracy comes from.
- Build and test the submission. Against the published specification first, then end to end.
- Handle the unhappy path. Rejections, retries, connection loss and corrections, so a bad afternoon does not become a compliance gap.
- Give you visibility. A screen that shows what went, what was accepted and what needs attention.
- Go live and stay available. Defra will change the spec. We keep you current.
We built the licensed-carrier verification and duty-of-care layer inside WasteLinks, our own waste services marketplace, so this is not a sector we are reading about for the first time.
Common questions
Do we have to replace our current system?
No. That is the entire point of this route. If your system holds the data and can be reached, it can submit.
What if our software is supplied by a vendor who will not change it?
Common, and usually solvable. We can often read from the database or a reporting export without touching their application at all. If their licence forbids that, we will say so rather than put you in breach of it.
How long does it take?
For a typical single-site operator with a system we can read, a few weeks. Multiple sites, several data sources or an unusual setup will be longer, and we scope it before quoting.
What happens when Defra changes something?
They will. Specifications move, especially between phases. That is what the care retainer covers, and it is optional.
Phase 1 is close. If you run a permitted receiving site, the useful next step is a short call about what your system already records. We will tell you whether integrating is worth it for you, including when the answer is that you should just buy a platform. Book a call