Digital Waste Tracking does not replace the Certificate of Destruction
A question we hear from ATFs weighing up the new rules: does Defra's Digital Waste Tracking replace the Certificate of Destruction? It does not. From October you are running two separate legal duties for the same car, and they go to two different systems.
The CoD stays with DVLA
Certificates of Destruction and Notifications of Destruction carry on exactly as they are, issued through DVLA's own CoD and NoD service. Nothing about the waste tracking rules changes when you issue a CoD, who issues it, or what it covers. Scope stays the same too: cars, light vans and three-wheelers under 3,500kg.
The waste receipt goes to Defra
Digital Waste Tracking adds a second record: every load of waste a permitted site receives must be entered into Defra's system, and an arriving end-of-life vehicle is such a load. This duty is triggered by receiving the vehicle. It does not wait for depollution, for the CoD, or for a decision about whether the car will be broken for parts. Received means reportable.
Why the distinction matters at the yard
Because the two records answer different questions. The CoD tells DVLA the vehicle is off the road for good and protects the last keeper. The Defra record tells the regulator what waste your site took in and when. An inspector can ask about either, so a yard needs both trails, and needs them to agree about the same car. Software that keeps the reg, the waste record and the CoD reference on one vehicle makes that automatic, but the legal point stands whatever you use: one car, two duties, two systems.