A BBC investigation has uncovered hundreds of waste dumps operating illegally across England. Worse still, there are also 11 tips that have been branded ‘super-sites’ — each of which contains rubbish measured in tens of thousands of tonnes.
Environment Agency data indicated that there were over 500 clandestine dumps in the country by the end of 2025. That’s in spite of the authority shutting down more than 700 similar sites over the course of 2024-25.
Where are these waste dumps located?
Usually, the illegal tips are hidden out in the countryside, on what would otherwise be farmland. Headlines on the dumps peaked public concern last year after 20,000 tonnes of waste was dumped in a field in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The site, just off the A34, had apparently been used for this purpose for several months.
Following up on the story, the BBC made an Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) data request to establish the scale of the problem. It found that there were a minimum of 11 sites that topped that 20,000-tonne figure. The BBC reported that:
six of the biggest sites are at Northwich, Cheshire (280,000 tonnes); Camborne, Cornwall (50,000 tonnes); Burnley, Lancashire (25,000 and 50,000 tonnes); Sittingbourne, Kent (36,000 tonnes); Fakenham, Norfolk (originally 35,000 tonnes). Dumping has been stopped at four of the sites, but none of them have yet been cleared up.
Worse still, there are likely more sites of similar magnitude. The Environment Agency admitted that:
this figure is based on the data we hold; however, we don’t have this information for every site.
Over the 2024/25 period, the Environment Agency stated that it closed down 743 illegal dumps. Of these, some 143 were classified as ‘high risk’. However, the watchdog also admitted that it knows of 517 tips that are still active.
However, environmental campaign group River Action highlighted that the Environment Agency only published this dated under pressure from the BBC. Spokesperson Erica Popplewell asked:
Why is the Environment Agency not saying what’s happening more publicly so that we can see what actions they’re taking and the secrecy around dumping sites can be eroded?
Links to organised crime
The Agency has previously claimed that it didn’t disclose the information in order to avoid prejudicing active investigations. This is because police claim that organised crime gangs run many of the illegal dumps.
Landfill tax alone is over £126 a tonne, on top of which businesses have to pay fees to the individual legal landfill sites. As such, the gangs make their money by massively undercutting the prices charged by legitimate operators to dispose of refuse. As the BBC explained:
The gangs often bring shredding equipment onto rural sites, located off otherwise quiet country lanes, which then see an influx of lorries bringing in waste – from household rubbish to soil and aggregate from construction sites – to be broken down into smaller, dumpable amounts.
Lorry loads are then taken away, either to be dumped in increasingly larger mountains of waste, buried under farmland or bridleways or even stored in barns.
The sheer prevalence of this pattern of organised crime led former Environment Agency head James Bevan to call it the “new narcotics”.
In fact, earlier this same month police seized six guns, “suspected fake electrical goods”, a “suspected stolen vehicle” and £100,000 cash in a series of raids linked to waste crimes across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.
Responses and statements
However, both locals living near the sites and environmental activists have said that — even after the raids and prosecutions — authorities aren’t doing enough to get rid of the refuse that already chokes the illegal sites.
Environment Agency’s enforcement and investigations manager, Emma Viner, stated that:
We share the public’s disgust for the things that are happening and for the waste crime that we’re seeing and we are taking action.
Every year, we’re shutting down hundreds of illegal waste sites.
But it’s a dynamic picture. For all the waste sites that we’re closing, we’re seeing more and more pop up around the country.
Likewise, a Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson echoed similar sentiments, stating:
We are working across government to wipe out illegal waste throughout the country and make those responsible pay.
We are directly supporting the Environment Agency to stop the exploitation of our waste system, giving them more officers and 50% more funding to boost waste crime enforcement, and handing out tougher sentences for those who break the law.
The illegal sites have no environmental oversight, and the waste they dump leaches toxins, microplastics and other hazardous substances into the soil. In turn, this pollutes the water and air, causing respiratory problems for nearby residents and rendering local water undrinkable.
The BBC’s investigation revealed that the scale of the authorities’ reaction has been deeply inadequate compared to the magnitude of the problem. These illegal sites are not only a blight on the land, they’re a danger to public health and the environment.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.