Digital waste tracking cost
Digital waste tracking costs £26 a year per business. But the real cost is getting it wrong: the charge, the penalties, and the cost of the switch.
What does digital waste tracking cost? The fee itself is small. The real cost is what happens if you ignore it.
The £26 charge
Registering for the digital waste tracking service costs £26 a year for each business, an upfront annual charge that gives twelve months of rolling access. It applies once the service becomes mandatory for you, and it is a flat yearly fee, not a charge per load.
The real cost is getting it wrong
The £26 is the cheap part. Once tracking is mandatory, not using it, or using it wrong, is a breach of the waste rules. The Environment Agency can issue formal warnings and civil penalties, suspend or cancel your permit, and prosecute. For a waste business, losing the permit is losing the business. More on why it matters in digital waste tracking is live.
And the cost of changing how you work
Beyond the fee, there is the practical cost of capturing the data DEFRA wants. If you are still on paper, that is the real change. Software that already makes your consignment notes digital takes care of most of it. Our digital waste tracking guide explains what the system needs.