(Picture: AFP)
The UK is littered with hundreds of illegal dumps, including ‘super sites’ with one holding up to 280,000 tonnes of rubbish.
Some 517 waste tips were in use at the end of last year, and more than 700 were shut down in 2024/25.
One site in Northwich, Cheshire, which contains around 280,000 tonnes, is so full the soil has been contaminated by construction and demolition waste.
Although waste dumping at the site has now stopped, an investigation into how it came into being is still ongoing.
Another site in Burnley, Lancashire, and a site in Camborne, Cornwall, both hold 50,000 tonnes of predominantly construction and demolition waste.
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A dump in Sittingbourne, Kent, contains approximately 36,000 tonnes of commercial and construction waste.
An estimated 800,000 tyres were deposited at an illegal tip in Fakenham, Norfolk.
Where are the biggest illegal waste sites in the UK?
According to the BBC, these are the biggest illegal waste sites in the UK:
- Northwich, Cheshire – 280,000 tonnes
- Burnley, Lancashire (site A) – 50,000 tonnes
- Camborne, Cornwall – 50,000 tonnes
- Sittingbourne, Kent – 36,000 tonnes
- Fakenham, Norfolk – 35,000 tonnes
- Burnley, Lancashire (site B) – 25,000 toness
In Oxford, a fly-tip measuring at 500 ft long and 20 ft deep was crowned one of Britain’s ‘biggest ever’.
The waste was left in one go and described by an MP as ‘threatening an environmental disaster’.
It was discovered last month by local anglers and contains plastic, foam and wood.
The BBC reported that more than 700 illegal dumps were shut down in 2024/25, with most in often hidden countryside locations on what should be agricultural land.
Waste crime is becoming an increasingly significant problem in the UK, with high-profile illegal dump sites provoking widespread outrage in recent months.
This included the 150-metre long illegal waste tip containing 20,000 tonnes in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, which prompted fears over pollution in the nearby River Cherwell.
An operation to clear up more than 30,000 tonnes of household and construction waste in the protected area of Hoads Wood in Kent began last summer and is expected to continue until later this year.
DEFRA said: ‘Waste crime is a scourge on local communities.
‘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 Government said it is taking action to tackle the issue, such as increasing the Environment Agency’s budget for waste crime enforcement by more than 50% this year to £15.6 million and doubling the size of the watchdog-hosted joint unit for waste crime.
It has also announced plans to introduce digital waste tracking, launch reforms to waste permit exemptions and waste carriers, brokers and dealers regimes, and are helping councils to tackle fly-tipping.
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