DWTS for hazardous waste sites: HP codes, POPs and what you need to know

Hazardous waste carries the heaviest data burden in the waste industry, and the Digital Waste Tracking Service adds to it. From October 2026, permitted hazardous waste sites must submit a digital record for every load they receive, with hazard property codes, POPs data and concentration values. Here is what that means in practice.

Hazardous waste is in scope, with extra fields

Any site permitted to receive or treat hazardous waste is a receiving site under the DWTS. The obligation is the same as for any other permitted site, but the data you have to submit is heavier.

A standard waste transfer note records the waste type, quantity, carrier and receiver. A hazardous waste record adds the hazardous property codes for the waste, and where persistent organic pollutants are present, the substance name and concentration value. Where you cannot provide that data, you have to say why.

Consignment notes carry on alongside

The DWTS does not yet replace the paper hazardous waste consignment note. Both run in parallel for now, and a consignment note does not substitute for a digital record, or the other way round.

Treat them as two separate regimes. Your consignment note procedure stays as it is. The digital record is an additional requirement that runs on top, and LoadLog handles that half.

Three years of records, not two

Most waste transfer records have to be kept for two years. Hazardous waste records have to be kept for three, and an inspector can ask to see them at any point.

That is one of the quiet reasons hazardous waste sites benefit from a digital system. The records sit in one place, searchable and ready to download, instead of across folders and filing cabinets.

Getting the classification right

The hazardous property codes and POPs data are only as good as the classification that sits under them. A load is hazardous if it has one or more of the hazardous properties in the Waste Framework Directive, and each property has its own code.

LoadLog builds these fields into the record as the waste is entered. The operator picks the properties and enters the concentrations, and the record carries the detail without the operator having to assemble it by hand.

What to do now

Register with DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking Service and get your API credentials. From there, every load needs a digital record submitted within two working days of the day after it arrives, with a £26 per organisation annual fee.

Because hazardous waste has the most fields to get right, it pays to start before the October 2026 deadline rather than the week before. The software is free until the end of 2026 for anyone who signs up before October.