D13: Blending before disposal
Waste is blended or mixed before it goes on to be disposed of under one of D1 to D12. Where no other D code fits, it also covers preparing waste for disposal, such as sorting, crushing, shredding or drying it.
The legal wording
Blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12
The annex adds, in a footnote: If there is no other D code appropriate, this can include preliminary operations prior to disposal including pre-processing such as, inter alia, sorting, crushing, compacting, pelletising, drying, shredding, conditioning or separating prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D1 to D12.
From Annex I to the Waste Framework Directive, which the Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026 point to for every D code.
Disposal in the waste hierarchy
D13 is a disposal operation, the last step in the waste hierarchy. A business that passes waste on has to take the reasonable steps open to it to put prevention, re-use, recycling and other recovery first.
It's a step on the way to another operation, so it fits a site that holds or prepares waste and then sends it on.
The recovery code to compare it with is R12: Exchange before recovery.
On a Digital Waste Tracking receipt
For each EWC code (the six-digit code from the List of Wastes that says what a waste is) on a receipt, the site that takes the waste in records the D code or the R code, or both, for what it will do with it, and the weight each code covers.
Sources
- Annex I to the Waste Framework Directive: disposal operations
- Annex II to the Waste Framework Directive: recovery operations
- The Digital Waste Tracking (England) Regulations 2026: Sch. 1, para. 14: the D or R code for each waste code on a receipt
- The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, regulation 12: the waste hierarchy
- DEFRA: Digital Waste Tracking production approval tests: test R04, a receipt with no D or R code, accepted with a warning
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