Waste operators face 1 October digital tracking deadline
Digital waste tracking becomes mandatory for permitted waste receivers in England and Wales on 1 October, with Scotland following in January 2027. A Strathaven software founder says the hard part is the sites with no mobile signal.
From 1 October, permitted waste receivers in England and Wales must record waste movements through DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking system. Scotland follows in January 2027.
That puts a deadline on an industry that, by the account of the people selling software into it, still runs on paper.
Alastair Mackie founded WasteSync in Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, to file those records automatically. He told Business Matters that waste facilities and transfer stations frequently sit in connectivity blackspots where standard mobile signal drops out entirely.
His argument is that compliance software which assumes a live connection is useless at the gate. WasteSync is built offline-first, he says: crews log movements and verify loads without a signal, and records sync to DEFRA and SEPA once the connection returns.
The company says it passed all 14 of DEFRA's test cases in July and has been approved to connect to the live system. That is WasteSync's own account of its status.
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