UK Compliance — Digital Waste Tracking
The UK's mandatory Digital Waste Tracking Service is coming. Are your construction waste records ready?
From October 2026, permitted and licensed waste receiving sites across England, Wales and Northern Ireland must use the UK Digital Waste Tracking Service (DWTS). Paper waste notes end. Hub360 maps your existing site workflows to DWTS fields — so your team, hauliers and receiving sites hand over clean digital records without paper or spreadsheets.
All permitted and licensed waste receiving sites must use DWTS from October 2026. Carriers, brokers and dealers follow from April 2027. Treat October 2026 as a hard stop — the sites you tip at must be digital by then, which means your records and processes need to match.
Implementation timeline
Autumn 2025 Complete
Private beta — invited operators only
Spring 2026 Approaching
Public beta available for all permitted/licensed receiving sites
October 2026 Mandatory
DWTS becomes mandatory for all permitted/licensed waste receiving site operators
April 2027 Planned
Planned expansion to carriers, brokers, dealers and certain exempt sites (subject to government decisions)
Source: GOV.UK Digital Waste Tracking Service (updated Nov 2025)
What DWTS means for construction
Paper waste notes end. Every load needs a digital record.
All construction and demolition waste classed as controlled waste is in scope. Tracking begins at the point of production — your site — and must follow the load to its end fate.
- What it is — waste type, description, SIC code for generating activity
- Quantity — weight or volume, plus ticket references
- From — producer/site details, including permit/authorisation reference where applicable
- To — destination site, receiving facility, intended recovery or disposal method
- Carrier — vehicle registration, driver, carrier details
- Date & time — real-time entry where possible; confirmed within 2 working days
- Chain-of-custody — producer → carrier → receiving facility, with unique movement ID
- POPs identification where relevant (e.g. legacy insulation, legacy materials)
- Waste hierarchy selection recorded for each movement
- Receiving sites (permitted/licensed facilities) — mandatory from October 2026
- Principal contractors — legally responsible for accurate classification and tracking even when using carriers
- Waste carriers, brokers & dealers — mandatory from April 2027
- Developers and public bodies — duty-of-care obligation remains with the waste producer
- Each movement gets a unique system-generated movement ID for audit and regulatory tracking
- Green List waste shipped across borders for recycling must include Annex VII data
- DWTS annual service charge anticipated at approximately £20 per organisation that creates or edits records
- Initial enforcement focuses on education and support, with civil sanctions following after transition
What's at stake
The risks of arriving at October 2026 unprepared
DWTS isn't just a compliance checkbox. For construction teams, the operational and commercial consequences of poor digital records run deeper than the regulatory fine.
- Civil sanctions for non-compliant waste records after transition
- Duty-of-care liability remains with the principal contractor — even if a carrier made the error
- Missing movement IDs and destination records leave you exposed at audit
- Sites refusing loads without valid digital waste records from October 2026
- Disputed haulage and disposal invoices with no chain-of-custody to counter them
- Valuation delays where waste removal evidence is missing or unstructured
- Paper-based reconciliation still in place when digital records become mandatory
- Subcontractors and hauliers not yet using compliant digital systems
- No structured export for QS, client or regulator requests
How Hub360 helps
DWTS-ready records built into your existing site workflow
Hub360 maps your existing workflows to DWTS fields — so every load of C&D waste, spoil, planings or hazardous material is captured correctly at source, without paper, without reconstruction and without a separate compliance process bolted on afterwards.
- Time/GPS-stamped pickup and drop — automatic, no manual entry
- Photos of load, access, drop and any issues
- Driver and site attestations captured at point of movement
- Works offline — records sync when signal is restored
- Waste type, SIC code and waste hierarchy selection
- Unique movement ID per load
- Carrier, vehicle and destination site details
- Chain-of-custody: producer → carrier → receiving facility
- POPs and hazardous stream documentation where required
- Annex VII data for Green List cross-border shipments
- One-click CSV/Excel/PDF export packs for QS, finance and audit
- Export to DWTS CSV/API format
- Structured evidence bundles per project, site or date range
- Searchable records — answer regulator or client queries in minutes, not days
The "don't get caught out" checklist — every load
The basics
- What it was (waste type/description)
- Quantity (weight/volume + ticket refs)
- From — producer/site details
- To — destination site/permit ref
- Carrier details, vehicle reg + driver
- Date & time
The proof (what protects you)
- Photos — load, access, drop, contamination/issues
- Signature where required
- Time & location stamps — automatic
- Notes — refusals, delays, instructions
- PDF proof pack — shareable instantly by QR or email
Hub360 captures all of the above in a single proof pack per job — automatically.
What Hub360 covers on a UK construction project
Every waste and material stream — in one standard process
Concrete, timber, metals, mixed waste — from demolition and groundworks to licensed receiving facility, with chain-of-custody and DWTS-ready records throughout.
Excavated material tracked from origin on site to verified disposal or reuse endpoint. GPS-verified routes, no ghost trips, duty-of-care maintained.
Asbestos, contaminated soil, legacy materials — full chain-of-custody with POPs identification and licensed facility confirmation, as required under DWTS.
Verify reuse vs disposal — critical for circular economy reporting and demonstrating waste hierarchy compliance within DWTS records.
Inbound aggregate and material movements tracked from quarry or supplier to site — supporting pyrite/mica source traceability and QS quantity verification.
Plant-to-pour records including idle time, water additions and site sign-off — closing the gap on idle time charges and concrete volume disputes.
Frequently asked questions