Should every load of waste be tracked online?

By the end, pupils can:

• explain what Digital Waste Tracking is, who has to use it and when
• build an argument for or against the motion, using evidence and naming where it comes from
• answer the other side’s strongest point fairly
• say what a piece of evidence can and can’t prove, such as what fly-tipping figures tell us about who dumps waste

For pupils. Share these at the start. They’re on the lesson sheet (page 5). We are learning to:

• explain what Digital Waste Tracking is and who has to use it
• build an argument from evidence, and say where the evidence comes from
• answer the other side’s strongest point

You’ve done it if you can:

• give two reasons for your side, each backed by a named source
• answer one point from the other side fairly
• say what one piece of evidence can and can’t prove

English, key stage 4. Spoken English: “selecting and organising information and ideas effectively and persuasively for formal spoken presentations and debates”, and “using Standard English when the context and audience require it”. Writing for purposes that include to “argue”. Reading: “distinguishing between statements that are supported by evidence and those that are not”, which the answers pick up. A debate speech can also be practice for the GCSE spoken language endorsement, marked with your exam board’s own criteria.

Citizenship, key stage 4. “The legal system in the UK, different sources of law and how the law helps society deal with complex problems”. The key stage 4 programme also asks pupils to “weigh up evidence, make persuasive arguments and substantiate their conclusions”.

Post-16. There’s no national curriculum, but the pack suits a debating society, an enrichment session or general studies.

Lesson 1, about 50 minutes. Read the opening aloud, share the objectives and take the first vote (5 minutes). Read the briefing in pairs and check it with the four questions under How to run it (15 minutes). Teams sort the argument cards and pick their best evidence (20 minutes). Plan speeches with the writing frame (10 minutes).

Lesson 2, about 50 minutes. Set up the room (5 minutes). The debate, following the running order (30 minutes). Closing questions and the exit task on the lesson sheet (10 minutes). Feedback with the marking guide, and set the written argument as homework (5 minutes).

Short of time? Use lesson 1 only, then do the closing questions and finish with the written argument instead of the debate.

The PDF has 13 pages: these notes first, then the pupils’ materials, then the marking guide and the answers.

• Teacher’s notes, pages 1 to 4: one for you.
• The lesson sheet (objectives, success criteria, closing questions and exit task), page 5: one per pupil.
• The briefing, pages 6 and 7: one per pupil, double-sided.
• The argument cards, pages 8 and 9: one set per team, cut out. Each row is a topic, so you can also keep the sheet whole for a side-by-side comparison.
• The debate running order, page 10: one for the chair.
• The writing frame, page 11: one per pupil.
• The marking guide, page 12: one for you, or one per pupil for peer marking.
• The answers, page 13: one for you.

The opening, to read aloud. From October 2027, businesses that carry waste anywhere in the UK will have to record every load they move on one national online system, called Digital Waste Tracking. The idea is to make it harder for criminals to dump waste or hide where it goes. But it takes time and money, it puts a lot of business information in one place, and it’s too new for anyone to know yet how much waste crime it will stop. So people disagree about it. Over two lessons you’ll read a briefing, weigh up the evidence on both sides, then argue one side in a formal debate and in writing. The motion is: This house believes every load of waste should be tracked online.

1. Read the opening aloud. Share the objectives and success criteria from the lesson sheet.
2. Read out the motion and take a vote: for, against or undecided. Write the numbers on the board.
3. Pupils read the briefing in pairs. Check it with four questions: who has to record loads from October 2026 in England and Wales? When do waste carriers start? Do paper waste transfer notes stop? Who isn’t required to use it yet?
4. Split the class into two teams of three speakers, plus a chair and an audience. Give sides at random: pupils argue the side they’re given, whatever they think themselves.
5. Each team reads all ten cards, both sides, and ranks its own five by the strength of the evidence. Ask them to predict which of the other side’s cards they’ll face, and plan an answer to it. The two blank cards are for arguments of their own.
6. Run the debate from the running order, then vote again. The team that moved more minds wins.
7. Pupils answer the closing questions on the lesson sheet, from recall to evaluation, then do the exit task: “In one sentence: do you agree with the motion now, and what is the strongest piece of evidence that made you decide? Then say whether the debate changed your mind.” Model answers are with the answers.
8. For homework, each pupil writes a persuasive argument on the motion using the writing frame. They may switch sides.

Stay neutral yourself. The cards are written in pairs of about the same length, from the same kind of source, so neither side starts ahead.

The motion has no right answer, but the questions below do.

The briefing questions, in the order asked under How to run it:

• Sites that receive waste, such as transfer stations and landfill sites, have recorded loads from October 2026 in England and Wales.
• Waste carriers, brokers and dealers start in October 2027.
• No. Paper waste transfer notes carry on alongside the new service for now.
• Businesses that produce waste, such as shops and offices. The governments will decide about them later.

The closing questions, with model answers, from recall to evaluation:

1. Recall. Which businesses have had to record each load on the service since October 2026 in England and Wales? Model answer: Sites that receive waste, such as recycling centres, transfer stations and landfill sites.
2. Recall. When do waste carriers, brokers and dealers have to start? Model answer: October 2027. The date has moved once already, from April 2027.
3. Understand. Give one reason a small, honest waste firm might welcome tracking, and one reason it might not. Model answer: Welcome: the government says it will make the rules easier for honest firms to follow and harder for rogue operators, who undercut honest firms on price. Not welcome: the yearly charge, devices, software and the time it takes to type in so much detail for every load.
4. Analyse. Both fly-tipping cards use the same Defra figures. How can the same statistics support both sides? Model answer: The total shows the problem is big and growing, which supports tracking. The share of household waste and the small sizes suggest much fly-tipping happens outside the businesses the system covers, which supports the other side. The figures say what was dumped, not who dumped it or what would stop it.
5. Evaluate. Which argument from the other side was hardest to answer, and why? Has it changed your view? Model answer: There’s no single right answer. Strong answers name the card and its source, explain why the evidence is strong (official figures, or what the law says), and say what would change their mind.

The exit task. Any answer that names a side and a piece of evidence from the pack meets the task. Compare the exit task with the two votes to see who moved and why.

What the evidence can’t prove. The fly-tipping total shows how big the problem is, but not that tracking will shrink it. The household waste figure tells us what was dumped, not who dumped it: a householder’s rubbish could have been dumped by someone they paid to take it away. Several cards report what the government says it intends or expects. When we wrote this pack in October 2026, we found no published evidence yet on whether the service cuts waste crime, which is no surprise for something so new. And the yearly cost of waste crime that governments cite comes from the Environmental Services Association, an industry body, as the Waste Crime Action Plan says. Strong pupils will spot the difference between a fact, an estimate and a plan.

The four nations share one online service, but each has its own law and its own regulator: the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

• Wales started with England: receiving sites from October 2026.
• Scotland and Northern Ireland start receiving sites in January 2027. An earlier government announcement gave a different date for Northern Ireland, and the latest GOV.UK guidance says January 2027, which makes a good small lesson on checking dates.
• Penalties differ. In England and Wales the regulator can impose fixed or variable money penalties as well as prosecute. Scotland’s regulations give SEPA no money penalties: it uses compliance notices, and serious cases go to court. We couldn’t find Northern Ireland’s regulations on legislation.gov.uk in October 2026.
• The fly-tipping figures on the cards are for England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own.
• The duty of care code of practice in the sources covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own.

The curriculum links above are England’s. The pack suits debate and persuasive writing work in the other nations’ curricula too, but we haven’t mapped it to them.

• Developing the digital waste tracking service, Defra and Environment Agency, GOV.UK, 2026
• Report receipt of waste, Defra, GOV.UK, 2026
• Digital waste tracking: check if you need to report the waste you receive, Defra and Welsh Government, GOV.UK, 2026
• Implementation of mandatory digital waste tracking: government response, Defra, GOV.UK, 2023
• Fly-tipping statistics for England, 2024 to 2025, Defra, GOV.UK, 2026
• Waste Crime Action Plan, Defra, GOV.UK, 2026
• The Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026, legislation.gov.uk, SI 2026/729
• The Digital Waste Tracking (Wales) Regulations 2026, legislation.gov.uk, WSI 2026/105
• The Digital Waste Tracking (Scotland) Regulations 2026, legislation.gov.uk, SSI 2026/145
• Digital Waste Tracking, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Northern Ireland
• National curriculum in England: English programmes of study, Department for Education, GOV.UK
• National curriculum in England: citizenship programmes of study for key stages 3 and 4, Department for Education, GOV.UK
• Waste duty of care code of practice, Defra and Environment Agency, GOV.UK