Sophisticated criminal networks dump millions of tonnes of waste into the British countryside every year, costing the UK an estimated £1 billion a year, according to a House of Lords investigation.
The Environment and Climate Change Committee found that large-scale fly-tipping operations are increasingly linked to organized criminal groups involved in money laundering, drug trafficking and modern slavery.
The research estimated that around 38 million tonnes of waste is illegally dumped every year – enough to fill Wembley Stadium 35 times – but warned the real figure could be far higher due to widespread under-reporting.
Committee chair Baroness Sheehan said waste crime had become a “low risk, high reward” activity for organized criminals who operate with “complete impunity” despite weak enforcement and limited resources at the Environment Agency.
One of the worst cases cited in the investigation involved 15ft-high piles of rubbish dumped in an area of Kent woodland where endangered nightingales live. Despite public reports in 2020, it took regulators four years to take action.
Residents told their peers they feared reprisals if they spoke out. Les Bashford, a gamekeeper on the Surrey-Kent border who is a victim of tipping “almost weekly”, said confrontation with offenders often leads to violence.
“At least 75 percent of the people who dump garbage here are known to the police,” he said. “If you catch them and they’ve already tipped, they’ll do anything to get away.”
The Lords inquiry concluded that the £1 billion annual cost of waste crime is made up of both the public cost of cleaning up sites and the tax revenue lost through unpaid landfill levies and unlicensed disposal operations.
Reputable waste companies also lose millions to criminal competitors who undercut them through illegal disposal, the committee said.
Dan Cooke of the Chartered Institute of Waste Managers called for tougher enforcement and more consistent national leadership.
“The negative impact this crime has on legitimate operators and the local economy, as well as the environmental damage it causes, means tackling waste crime must become a Government priority,” he said.
Peers called on ministers to set up a dedicated waste crime hotline, a digital tracking system to monitor waste from origin to disposal, and quarterly targets and progress reports for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The committee also recommended a review of whether the landfill tax system is inadvertently fueling illegal dumping by making lawful disposal prohibitively expensive.
Baroness Sheehan said: “Waste crime is significantly under-prioritized despite its significant environmental, economic and social costs. The Government must act now – there is no time to waste.”
A Defra spokesman said the government had already “tightened the net” on litter gangs as part of its plan for change.
“We are supporting local authorities to break up rubbish dumpers, funding more Environment Agency enforcement officers and imposing tougher penalties for those who illegally transport rubbish,” the spokesman said. “We will carefully consider the recommendations in this report and respond in due course.”
The Lords’ findings add to growing concerns about the UK’s waste system, where gaps in enforcement have allowed criminals to profit from illegal waste dumping while damaging the environment and local communities.
