Policy paper

Mandatory digital waste tracking

Updated 21 October 2023

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

We plan to introduce mandatory digital waste tracking across the UK. This is a commitment outlined in our Resources and waste strategy for England. This will:

• provide a comprehensive way to see what is happening to the waste produced in the UK
• help support more effective regulation of waste
• help businesses comply with their duty of care with regards to waste
• help us move towards a more circular economy by enabling us to maximise the value we extract from our resources
• reduce the ability for waste criminals to operate and undercut legitimate businesses through their systemic mis-handling of waste, illegal exports, and flytipping

We will have information about where and how waste is created, who is handling it, what is done to it, and where it ends up.

Mandatory digital waste tracking will be introduced from April 2025.

This policy paper sets out:

• our vision and mission
• benefits of change
• working in partnership
• developing the new system
• delivery timeline
• impact on existing systems
• government strategy and commitment
• supporting legislation
• progress updates

Our vision and mission

Our vision is to make it easy to track waste and resources in real time throughout the economy.

Our mission is to deliver a waste tracking service that is simple to use and provides value for all users.

Benefits of change

Mandatory digital waste tracking will help businesses and government move towards a circular economy by joining up and digitising currently fragmented systems to provide a single comprehensive way of tracking the amount and type of waste being produced and where it ends up.

This will also support the effective regulation of waste, transforming the way environmental regulators monitor compliance, prioritise regulatory activities and help prevent waste crime, including fly tipping, deliberate misclassification of waste, illegal waste exports and the operation of illegal waste sites. It will also facilitate a more level playing field for legitimate waste operators.

It forms part of the UK government’s wider plans to introduce smarter regulation to grow the economy. Smarter regulation is about improving regulation and guidance for businesses across the board, ensuring it is as clear, proportionate and does not unnecessarily impose burdens on businesses which restrict innovation and growth.

Working in partnership

Digital waste tracking is a UK-wide initiative. Whilst waste policy is a devolved matter, the UK government and devolved administrations have agreed to work together to introduce a UK-wide waste tracking service to provide a single system across the UK. The environmental regulators in all 4 nations are also partners in this project and actively involved in the development of the service.

In 2022 the UK government, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, jointly published a consultation to seek views on our proposals for the service. We have used  the feedback to review and refine our proposals which will be reflected in secondary legislation and shape the digital design of the waste tracking service.

Read the summary of responses to the consultation and the joint government response.

Developing the new system

The waste tracking service is being developed in line with the Service Standard for digital services including UK government’s guidance on using open standards. We will use tools and infrastructure that are flexible, scalable, sustainable, and secure.

We will design the service based on user needs which have been developed and tested with users of the service. We are following an agile delivery plan which focuses on user needs with frequent iteration and testing to continually improve the service based on this feedback.

The IT service development is supported by a user panel representing waste producers, carriers, brokers, dealers, waste site operators, local authorities, and regulators from across the UK.

You can sign up to join our user panel. There will be opportunities for you to help shape the service by participating in user research and testing the system as it is being developed.

Delivery timeline

Mandatory digital waste tracking will come into force from April 2025 – with the digital waste tracking service being publicly available to users on a voluntary basis in 2024.

Impact on existing systems

The introduction of a central mandatory service for digital waste tracking will allow us to decommission outdated legacy IT systems, such as the electronic duty of care (EDOC) which has already taken place.

The service will also improve the coverage, quality and timeliness of the data that is collected and facilitate more efficient and effective waste regulation and intervention by joining up and digitising currently fragmented, and mostly paper based, systems to provide a single comprehensive way of tracking the amount and type of waste being produced and where it ends up.

This will help support more effective regulation of waste, help businesses comply with their duty of care with regards to waste, help us move towards a more circular economy by enabling us to maximise the value we extract from our resources, and reduce the ability for waste criminals to operate and undercut legitimate businesses through their systemic mis-handling of waste, illegal exports, and flytipping

Government strategy and commitment

Digital waste tracking is included in key government commitments such as the Resources and Waste Strategy in England, and will contribute towards the aims of other key strategies such as the:

• 25 Year Environment Plan – commits to exploring options to introduce electronic tracking of waste
• UK’s Industrial Strategy – promotes moving towards a regenerative, circular economy, and raising productivity by using resources more efficiently
• Clean Growth Strategy – contains an ambition for the UK to be a zero avoidable waste economy by 2050 and emphasises the importance of maximising the value we extract from our resources
• Welsh Government’s Beyond Recycling Strategy – commits to introducing a mandatory waste tracking system to track where wastes end up and to provide annual information on industrial, commercial and demolition waste produced in Wales. Digital waste tracking will provide more detailed waste information which will help future policy development and provide key information on the movement of waste to help tackle waste crime
• Welsh Government’s Net Zero Wales Carbon Budget 2 (2021 to 2025) – policy 52 commits to increased resource efficiency in industry and business, including a mandatory waste tracking system to help businesses more closely monitor their wastes in order to reduce and recycle more
• Making Things Last: a circular economy strategy for Scotland – supports Scotland’s vision for a circular economy and recognises the value of waste as a resource - waste tracking delivers on the commitment to consider mandatory electric tracking of all waste
• One Planet Prosperity: Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regulatory strategy – information and evidence provided by waste tracking will transform SEPA’s ability to track compliance, prioritise regulatory activities and help prevent waste crime
• draft Green Growth Strategy for Northern Ireland – Will be Northern Ireland’s multi-decade strategy, balancing climate, environment and the economy in Northern Ireland
• draft Environment Strategy – will set Northern Ireland’s environmental priorities for the coming decades, including reducing waste, movement towards a circular economy and improving processes for managing pollution

Supporting legislation

Through the Environment Act 2021, we already have primary legislation in place which provides the powers to introduce mandatory digital waste tracking regulations (clauses 34CA and 34CB of the Environment Protection Act 1990). These regulations can place requirements on relevant waste controllers, or a waste authority, to enter certain information related to the tracking of waste into the waste tracking service.

We will also be making a range of legislative amendments across the United Kingdom, including (but not exhaustively limited to) legislation relating to the waste duty of care, hazardous waste, transfrontier shipments of waste, waste permitting and licensing and in Wales the statutory use of WasteDataFlow by local authorities. The waste duty of care codes of practice will also need to be revised.

Progress updates

You can find more information on this project in our blogs and newsletters:

• read our blog User panel is key to success for the waste tracking service

• sign up to receive our newsletters