Digital Waste Tracking: What Comes After Phase 1?

Phase 1 of mandatory Digital Waste Tracking officially arrived on 1 October 2026. If you are a First Mile customer, you might not have noticed the transition. That is because our bespoke waste tracking software, Miley, has been handling the data requirements smoothly behind the scenes well before the deadline passed.

Phase 2 is now on the horizon so you may be asking yourself, what does Phase 2 mean for my business? Does it mean extra admin, or is it someone else's problem?

What is the Phase 2 timeline and who does it impact?

Phase 2 focuses on waste carriers, brokers and dealers across the UK. Defra has confirmed a staged timeline leading up to mandatory compliance in late 2027:

During Phase 2, about 300,000 registered carriers, brokers and dealers will need to record their part of every waste movement. They will submit details to Defra, broadly similar to a waste transfer note, either through software integrations or spreadsheet uploads. It represents a significant operational shift for waste handlers.

What Phase 2 means for your business

Happily for businesses that are waste producers, Phase 2 creates no new legal obligations or direct actions.

The responsibility for Phase 2 reporting sits entirely with carriers like First Mile, not with the businesses generating the waste. You do not need to fill out extra forms, submit system data or change your day-to-day recycling routine.

Replacing paper records like Waste Transfer Notes with digital tracking is a major step forward for the UK. Digital records bring clear transparency to waste movement, replacing easy-to-lose paperwork with a complete end-to-end picture. That visibility leaves rogue operators with nowhere to hide and makes waste crimes like fly-tipping much harder to commit.

This is why duty of care still matters

While Phase 2 does not add paperwork to your desk, your duty of care still matters.

Your legal duty of care as a waste producer means you should ensure your waste collector is compliant with Digital Waste Tracking regulations to ensure waste is disposed of properly and rogue traders cannot continue to mar communities and habitats with illegal dumping of waste. To review your ongoing responsibilities, you can check our duty of care compliance checklist.

First Mile holds Defra-approved developer status through the development of Miley, our waste tracking software. As Phase 2 rolls out through its beta stages, you can rest assured that your waste tracking will remain fully compliant, seamless and completely hassle-free. Nothing changes for you, First Mile will continue compliantly collecting your waste with a zero-to-landfill promise.