Your first waste tracking submission, end to end

The first submission is the one that feels hardest. A new service, a code to enter, a form full of fields you have not used before. This is the whole path in the order you actually do it: registering with DEFRA, connecting LoadLog, recording one load, and watching the first note come back accepted.

Step one: the DEFRA side

If your organisation has not registered for the report receipt of waste service yet, that comes first. You need an organisation-level Government Gateway or GOV.UK One Login account (not a personal one), your organisation details, and a few minutes. Registration gives you an API code: the string that lets software submit on your organisation's behalf. DEFRA charges £26 per year for each organisation. Our register guide walks each screen, including the current payment timing.

Already registered? Fetch your API code from the service and keep it handy for the next step.

Step two: connect LoadLog

Create a free account, then open Settings, then Organisation. In the DEFRA Integration section, paste your API code and click Verify Production Code. LoadLog checks the format and saves it, so a typo is caught in front of you rather than on your first load.

Do your first send in the sandbox. It is the same path end to end against DEFRA's test system, with nothing at stake, and it proves the whole chain works before real loads depend on it. When you are ready, switch the organisation over to production.

Step three: record the first load

Every load arriving at your site becomes one note. Open Waste Transfer Notes, then New WTN, and work down the form.

The waste item is the heart of it: the EWC code for the material, its description, and the quantity, in the units your site works in. If you are unsure which code fits, the EWC code lookup covers the catalogue, and LoadLog validates the code as you type it.

The carrier comes next: the organisation's name and its waste carrier registration number. Where a load is exempt from needing a number, the form asks for the reason instead. LoadLog checks the registration against the public registers while the driver is still at the gate.

Then the movement itself: the date and time the load arrived, your site and its permit number, and the vehicle registration if you have it. Signatures close the record: the person handing over signs on the screen, exactly as they would sign a paper transfer note.

Save it as a draft if a detail is still coming, or go straight through to submit. From the second load onward, templates keep the common details ready, so a new note starts with the regulars filled in.

Step four: submit and read the result

When the record is complete, press Submit to DEFRA. The note's status moves from draft to submitted, and an accepted send comes back with the service's reference, stored on the note for your records.

If a send does not go through, nothing is lost. The note stays editable, and failed sends are retried automatically where the cause is infrastructure rather than data. Persistent refusals almost always fall into one of a handful of data classes, and our guide to rejected submissions walks each one.

What to do in the first week

One note proves the path. The first week decides whether the process is quick. Three things worth doing: switch to production only when you are ready to record real loads; save templates for the loads you see every day; and if your site takes in dozens of loads a day, look at importing your records rather than typing each one. The how it works page shows the batch and import routes.

The free plan covers five notes a month, which is enough to build the habit and test the loop. Compliance Lite lifts the limit to unlimited notes at £12 a month when real volume starts.