Ahead of the introduction of mandatory digital waste tracking, Will Rundle, CEO of Nexus Regen, explains why maintaining a clear evidence trial has never been more important and what home builders can do to reduce their exposure to waste crime.
Between 2016 and 2018, more than 121,000 tonnes of waste from housing developments across Suffolk was tipped at two farms near the village of Iken. Last September, five organisations were sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court. The haulier was fined £26,666 and had already been ordered to hand back £425,000 under a proceeds of crime order.
Three of the five were construction firms who had simply passed the material on. They admitted they had not checked where it was going. Each was convicted under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the duty of care. The court heard that assumptions had been made about what permissions others in the chain had obtained. The material had been described as soil, but it was brick, concrete, wood and plastic.
That is the part of waste crime the industry keeps missing. It does not start with a criminal. It starts with a legitimate developer, a legitimate groundworks package, and a wagon leaving site.
Construction waste moves through long chains. Developer to groundworker, groundworker to haulier, haulier to receiving site. The paperwork catches up later, by email, PDF or photo, long after the wagon has gone. But this model is breaking.
The Environment Agency is no longer waiting to be told
Operation Unite, an 18-week enforcement campaign across England, closed this summer. Officers visited 42 permitted waste sites – 17 permits were suspended or entered the revocation process, and more than 30 criminal investigations were opened. In August an arrest followed an investigation near Camborne, at a site holding an estimated 50,000 tonnes of predominantly inert construction waste.
The regulator publishes a watchlist now, updated monthly. The current list carries 115 sites holding close to 1.9m tonnes. Behind it sits £45m of additional enforcement funding over three years, and an approach built on financial intelligence, satellite and drone imagery, ANPR and planning scrutiny. Respondents to the EA's 2025 waste crime survey estimated that 20% of all waste produced may be illegally managed somewhere in the chain, up from 18% two years earlier. Waste crime is estimated to cost the English economy £1B a year.
Duty of Care does not end at the site gate
Most home builders I speak to do ask for transfer notes, and they are entitled to feel aggrieved at being told otherwise.
Let me be clear - effort is not the issue here.
Collecting paperwork and being able to prove something are different activities, and most people find out which one they were doing at the worst possible moment.
Appointing a reputable contractor does not transfer liability. It just moves it out of sight temporarily.
The producer stays responsible, alongside the rest of the chain, for taking reasonable steps: correct classification, an authorised carrier, a permitted destination, and evidence that holds up. Investigations rarely start with the developer. They start two or three steps down, and the trail runs backwards to whoever produced the material.
The number nobody expects
At a permitted site, inert soil is qualifying material at £8.65 a tonne. At an unauthorised site the lower rate does not exist.
HMRC applies the standard rate of £130.75 a tonne to everything. Identical material, 15 times the exposure, decided entirely by where the wagon went.
Five thousand tonnes of soil at the wrong destination is £653,750 in landfill tax, before a penalty of up to 100% of that liability, and before remediation. The EA and HMRC publish worked examples on exactly this basis.
What actually protects you
HMRC can pursue landfill tax from anyone who knowingly causes or facilitates a disposal at an unauthorised site. Its guidance names the producer, the broker, the haulier, the landowner and company officers, and liability can be joint. What separates knowingly from unknowingly is whether you checked, and whether you can show it. HMRC's test is blunt: check the next holder is authorised to take the material, ask where it is going, and get proof.
From 1 October 2026, mandatory Digital Waste Tracking begins for permitted receiving sites in England and Wales, with carriers, brokers and dealers scheduled to follow in October 2027. Regulators will hold a structured, near real-time picture of what moved, where it came from, and where it ended up.
Waste compliance used to be a site-level tick-box exercise, but it is now a board-level risk. The work between now and October is not complicated: know where your material is going before it leaves, and be able to evidence it afterwards.
Will Rundle is CEO and Founder of Nexus ReGen. In June, Will joined HBF’s Technical and Sustainability Director, Rhodri Williams for a webinar exploring waste crime and answering member questions. Watch the webinar - Understanding changes to UK waste crime and enforcement – back on our website.
To support members in complying with digital waste tracking requirements, Nexus ReGen is offering HBF members a 50% discount on its digital waste management software, Nexus Assurance when signing up before 20 October 2026. Ts and Cs apply, find out more at usenexusregen.com/HBF50