Digital Waste Tracking: What Every Scrap Metal Dealer Needs to Know
As scrap metal dealers, you’ll be used to submitting quarterly and annual reports to DEFRA (Environmental Agency), however starting from the 1st of October “Digital Waste Tracking” submissions will become law and these reports will in essence be a daily exercise for most dealers.
For many dealers, it's still not entirely clear what it actually means for their day-to-day operation, when it applies to them and what happens if they get it wrong.
Here's the overview, no jargon, just what you need to know.
What is Digital Waste Tracking?
From our understanding Digital Waste Tracking (DWT) will work alongside the existing quarterly and annual paper-based reports, but DWT is a electronic submission that has to be submitted within 2 DAYS of the movement happening. At this initial “Phase 1” stage the submission must contain information on ALL waste received, what it was, where it came from and when. For scrap metal dealers, that means every load in and out of your yard needs to be logged electronically, not scribbled on a pad or filed away in a folder for the year.
The Environment Agency will have visibility of these records, and enforcement is expected to follow the same pattern as other regulatory changes in this sector: guidance first, then spot checks, then penalties for anyone still relying on paper.
Who needs to act now and who has more time
This will be the part that catches people out, because DWT isn't rolling out to everyone on the same date.
If you hold an environmental permit for a waste operation, a Metal Recycling Site licence, an End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) dismantler permit, or similar, Digital Waste Tracking is mandatory from 1st October 2026. If that's you, this isn't a future problem. It's live now.
If you operate as a registered waste carrier, broker, or dealer without holding a site permit, buying, selling or arranging scrap movements without a permitted processing site, you have until October 2027. That might sound like breathing room, but the businesses who get their systems sorted early are the ones who won't be scrambling in twelve months' time, competing with everyone else for support and setup slots in the run-up to the deadline.
Either way, the direction of travel is the same for the whole industry. Getting ahead of it now regardless of which deadline applies to you, puts you in a stronger position than waiting for the reminder letter.
The two-day rule
One detail that is worrying most dealers is that once phase 1 commences, waste movements need to be submitted within two days. Not at the end of the month when you do your books. Not when you remember. Within two days of the movement happening.
For a busy yard processing multiple loads a day, that's not a paperwork inconvenience, it's a constant background task that has to happen on time, every time, or you're technically non-compliant. Miss the window on a handful of movements over a few months and it adds up to a genuine exposure risk if the Environment Agency comes asking.
Where MetalTrack fits in
MetalTrack was designed to protect dealers and ensure compliance and we continue to support that ethos with the requirements of DWT.
Instead of someone in your yard manually logging every movement and racing the two-day clock, MetalTrack captures the data as the work happens and can submit automatically, so you're always inside the window without anyone having to think about it. No spreadsheets. No end-of-week catch-up. No wondering, at the back of your mind, whether last Tuesday's load actually got logged.
In practice, that means:
- Compliance runs in the background, not as an extra job bolted onto a busy day.
- Every submission lands inside the two-day window, automatically, no clock-watching required.
- Your records are always audit-ready, so if the Environment Agency does come knocking, you're not digging through paperwork to prove you did things right.
- Your team's time goes back into running the yard, not managing compliance admin.
Whether your deadline is the 1st of October this year or October 2027, the sooner MetalTrack is in place, the sooner this stops being something you have to worry about at all.
Key dates at a glance
| Phase | Who it applies to | Deadline |
| Phase 1 | Permitted sites (Metal Recycling Sites, ELV/vehicle dismantlers, and similar) | 1 October 2026 |
| Phase 2 | Registered carriers, brokers, and dealers without a site permit | October 2027 |
| Ongoing | All in-scope waste movements | Submit within 2 days |
Get compliant without the hassle
DWT is happening either way. The only real choice is whether you handle it with a system built for it or find out the hard way what happens when a two-day deadline gets missed under pressure.
MetalTrack takes the worry out of it entirely. Get in touch with our team to see how quickly you can be set up and compliant, whichever phase applies to you.