Paul Lynch
BBC Shared Data Unit

Image source, PA Media

For years, the number of fly‑tipping incidents reported in England hovered around one million annually.

But in 2020, the BBC’s Shared Data Unit identified a worrying trend: large‑scale incidents the size of a “tipper lorry” or bigger had been rising steadily.

Campaign groups pointed to organised crime as the driving force. Fake waste‑clearance firms, posing as legitimate operators, were dumping commercial waste in fields, barns and parks.

High‑profile cases, like the 150m‑long waste mound beside the A43 in Oxfordshire, may draw headlines, but thousands more a year are still substantial in scale and are continuing to increase in frequency.

In 2019‑20, councils logged around 31,000 incidents at least a tipper lorry in size; last year that had risen to nearly 52,000. The cost of clearing them, more than £19m.

Yet, those campaigners still argue punishment remains too low when it comes to the bigger offences. Only 663 fines more than £1,000 have been issued to fly-tippers since 2019.

You have rinsed the jars, flattened the cardboard and dutifully lined everything up on the kerb - but what happens to your recycling once that bin lorry pulls away?

We had a look behind the scenes at the Materials Recovery Facility in Padworth, Berkshire, and watched as plastics, paper and tin cans began a carefully choreographed journey through a wonderland of machinery and magnets.

Curious to see for yourself? Tune in at 14:00 GMT for the next live stream by clicking on the 'Watch Live' button at the top of this page.

• Inside a recycling centre: What happens to our rubbish?

Jonathan Fagg
BBC England Data Unit

A Birmingham City Council report published last year found the city saw a rise in fly-tipping reports in the early months of the strike.

"The overall numbers of cases of fly-tipping have increased significantly as an impact of the industrial action in waste management," a report for the city council's licensing and public protection committee agenda said in June.

"This work is currently taking nearly all the available resource of the Waste Enforcement Unit.”

The report shows the number of fly-tipping cases recorded by the city council in eight months in 2024 was 53.

From the start of the strikes in January, the report shows an average 96 per month from January to March - with 118 cases in March alone.

Kath Stanczyszyn
BBC West Midlands

Image source, Gabriel Bononi

This is a strike rapidly heading for the record books.

There is still no sign of a deal between two sides that seem completely entrenched.

The council remains adamant about making modernising changes that will not bring about further equal pay claims. Unite says the idea of members’ pay and treatment being collateral damage for this is an unimpeachable red line.

It is hard to see how it ends, but the ramifications are huge. The ongoing cost to the council is in the tens of millions and rising. The ongoing cost to workers is more than just financial.

Residents in the second city have had more than enough. There have been zero recycling collections for more than 12 months and small pockets of the city are struggling to look acceptable.

With local elections on the horizon, it would usual to assume both the Labour administration - who will likely be punished at the polls - and Unite - who so not know what will be on the cards from May - would be pushing behind the scenes for a resolution. But it seems there is no wriggle room.

And of course, in industrial disputes there never is - until there is. Watch this space.

• How is Birmingham bins strike going to be resolved?

Nicky Campbell
BBC Radio 5 Live presenter

Image source, Getty Images

Nicky Campbell's BBC Radio 5 Live programme has been taking calls from the public about the food waste systems in their area.

Simon told the show that ten years ago he had brown bins at his home in Barnet, London, but had problems with foxes.

"My wife and I did it and the foxes ate it all," he adds.

"It was disgusting and we stopped doing it because the foxes kept on eating it.

"Why don't they make fox-proof bins?," he asked.

Kaleigh Watterson
Cheshire political reporter

Long round trips to recycle waste are also common for residents in parts of Cheshire.

Cheshire East Council closed three household waste and recycling centres last year as part of cost‑saving measures.

It means residents in the north of the borough now face a 30-minute drive to reach the nearest facility in Macclesfield.

“If you go the wrong time of day, you'll just be stuck in traffic," says Liz Clarke from Bollington.

"They're often queues down the road."

The council said it was working to improve the booking system to manage peak-time demand and reduce traffic problems.

• 'It's a 30-minute trip each way now to the tip'

Alix Hattenstone
Journalist, BBC Local

Image source, The No1 Binman

Ashley, also known as viral sensation The No1 Binman, has 13 years’ experience in the "bindustry" so we know his tips won’t be… rubbish.

• Don’t bother with plastic bags -"Waste of time!” says Ashley. “Black bags cost a fortune as well. Everything in recycling bins should be loose apart from food waste. Save your money and rinse your containers."

• Stop food recycling getting sticky -“If you leave waste for a couple of days, it sticks to the bottom, then you're the one having to scoop out,” Ashley explains. “Most councils allow you to use newspaper at the bottom of your food recycling.”

• Check what you can recycle -Ashley’s bugbears include people who leave food recycling in the packaging - or put polystyrene in the paper bin. If he finds a recycling bin with more than 5-10% of non-recyclable items, he is told to leave the whole thing.

Read the rest of Ashley's recycling tips here.

Julia Bryson
BBC Yorkshire

For the residents of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, the closure of their local tip means they now have a 22-mile (35km) round trip to their nearest site.

Not the most environmentally-friendly of moves, the local MP Robbie Moore argues.

The Conservative started a petition against the closure of the household recycling centre and more than 10,000 people signed it – but Bradford Council went ahead and closed the site, along with two others, in March 2024.

Moore, and local litter-picking volunteers, have noted an increase in fly-tipping on the region’s famous hills – but the council claim this is not the case.

A spokesperson said closing the Ilkley tip and two others in the district had saved £900,000 a year – and said those who fly-tip are likely to do it regardless of whether there is a tip nearby.

Nicky Campbell
BBC Radio 5 Live presenter

Nicky Campbell's BBC Radio 5 Live programme has been taking calls from the public about the food waste systems in their area.

Peter, from Brighton, says his food waste has been collected on time after his local council began introducing collections in September.

"I was expecting it to be a disaster," he said. "Before food collection it was quite an issue, very close to 50% of food was missed, but it seems to have got better somewhat since."

But another caller - Steve from Stafford - says this is a "load of nonsense".

"For me it's hard enough to take out the rubbish to the wheelie bin, but I respect people who do," he adds.

"I'm not going to change my ways."

Tom Edwards
Transport Correspondent, BBC London

At a recycling facility in Southwark, cans, bags and cardboard whizz around us on conveyor belts.

About 100,000 tonnes of rubbish from five different boroughs are sorted here each year, but with London's recycling rate stalling at 33% for more than a decade, clearly more needs to be done.

Oliver Peat, one of the bosses at the facility run by Veolia, says there is no silver bullet to increasing recycling in London, but it's up to everyone to play their part.

"If you can separate out food waste as best as possible, that is the best way to live sustainably and really boost recycling rates in London," he explains.

He says recycling bins contaminated with items that can't be recycled are a regular issue for the team.

"We do come across problems of people who want to do the best they can, and they think that anything that they put in their recycling bin can be recycled - which unfortunately just isn't the case in London.

"What we want to see is people just putting the correct items into their recycling bin."

• London's rubbish problem: Can the city finally clean up its act?

Sarah Farmer
BBC South

Not long now before someone hits the big ‘Go’ button here at Padworth Recycling Centre in Berkshire, and we’ll start our Trash Cam live stream.

In front of me is a mountain of plastics waiting to be sorted - milk bottles, fizzy drink bottles, detergent tubs, the lot.

You’ll soon be able to watch it all tumble past on a conveyor belt as it’s filtered, scanned and picked through by workers.

Just click on the 'Watch Live' button at the top of this page to see the action!

Just 15.8% of waste in the London borough of Tower Hamlets is recycled, according to the most recent figures, externalfrom the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

That makes it the worst local authority at recycling in England.

Residents living on estates in Bow have been telling the BBC about the problems they face when they attempt to recycle.

Jackie Warner has lived on her estate for 26 years.

She calls the waste management a "nightmare" as recyclables have to be placed in special bags, which are "extremely thin".

"You can only put so much in there, and you can only put certain things in, but no one seems to adhere to that," Warner says.

She adds that general waste and food waste also are sent down the same chute and not split up.

"In the summer it can be quite foul," Warner said about the communal bin's smell.

On another estate, Hirra Khan Adeogun has to take her waste outside to two small futuristic-looking waste disposal units with bins supposed to be emptied on separate days.

"I am a diligent recycler, I really try. But we've noticed that actually they seem to bung it all in the same van," she says.

Tower Hamlets Council says the low recycling rate is largely down to the borough being one of the "most densely populated in England, with 88% of homes as flats, meaning most residents rely on communal recycling facilities rather than individual bins".

"High-rise living and rapid housing growth make recycling structurally challenging," it added.

It says it is piloting new systems such as introducing food waste to some tower blocks which has led to improved rates.

BBC News England

There is a wide gap between the highest and lowest recycling rates across England.

London and the North East consistently have the lowest rate, recycling just over 30% of household waste each in 2023-24.

Tower Hamlets has the lowest rate of recycling of any English local authority, recycling only 15.8% of household waste.

At the other end of the scale, South Oxfordshire District Council has the highest rate at 63% for 2023-24.

Some household waste is rejected from recycling sites.

This can be for several reasons, including contamination by water, dirt or paint, and inclusion of the wrong materials.

Defra estimates that 6% of household waste sent for recycling was rejected in 2023-24.

Image source, Getty Images

Today we're looking at stories from around England focusing on how we recycle our waste.

So far this morning, we've heard from a chef who set up a community kitchen to help stop people wasting food - something he says is a "heinous crime".

Ever wondered how compost is made? Have a look at this fascinating guide to the journey your food waste takes.

And BBC reporter Hayley Coyle spent a cold February day with the bin loading team in Doncaster, and found out what they like - and don't like - about the job.

Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands

I’ve been out on a bin collection round in Edingale this morning. Here are crew members Matt Tilley, Liam Taylor and Mark Cox, who collect for the joint Lichfield and Tamworth waste service.

It comes as big changes are on the way for residents across both council areas. The government is requiring every council in England to introduce separate weekly food waste collections by March next year, meaning new trucks, kitchen caddies and outdoor caddies will be rolled out to homes in early 2026.

The council says food waste currently ends up in black bins and is incinerated - but separate collections will allow it to be turned into renewable energy and fertiliser instead. The government is funding the new vehicles and has provided additional money to help run the service.

A waste and recycling roadshow is taking place in Lichfield city centre later today, where residents can find out more and ask questions about the changes ahead.

Jessica Lane
BBC Look North

Lincolnshire’s Energy from Waste plant in North Hykeham is continuing to turn household rubbish into electricity - processing more than two million tonnes since opening in 2014.

The county council says the site now prevents almost all general waste from going to landfill, generating enough power for about 27,000 homes.

Environmental groups argue incineration produces high emissions, but both campaigners and the council agree on one point: households need to create less rubbish in the first place.

With food waste collections now rolling out across the county, new material streams - such as soft plastics - are expected to follow.

The council says food waste will be taken to an anaerobic digestion plant to become green fuel and fertiliser.

Read the full story here.

Image source, Sustain Wiltshire

People are coming up with innovative ways to use waste sustainably.

In Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, a company is generating electricity from methane produced by a landfill site.

Now, the landfill owners Crapper and Sons have installed a giant dome to grow fruit and vegetables from the sites gases as well.

The dome's warm air allows fruit and vegetables to be grown out of season – including avocados, which do not normally grow in the UK.

The owners’ community interest company, Sustain Wiltshire, is planning to build more than 100 such domes if planning permission is granted.

Nick Ash, the project director, said that the domes could supply 80% of the fruit and vegetable needs of Royal Wootton Bassett, Purton and Brinkworth.

Read the full story here

Hayley Coyle
BBC Yorkshire

Image source, Hayley Coyle/BBC

Did you know the bin loaders in Doncaster walk the equivalent of a half-marathon on every shift?

Starting the day at 5am and helping to empty the region's 17,000 bins, refuse workers are the frontline of waste disposal.

I spent the day with them to see for myself what they like - and don't like about the job.

The bin teams enjoy fresh air and camaraderie but have to put up with unpleasant smells and, sometimes, bad-tempered residents.

• 'People do appreciate what we do': On the road with Doncaster's refuse workers

If we look back to the start of the century, local authorities in England sent 22 million tonnes of waste to landfill in 2000-01.

There’s been a 94% drop since then, with the figure for 2023-24 standing at 1.4 million tonnes.

The amount of household waste recycled shot up over that period, at least initially. In 2000-01, just 11% of household waste was recycled.

That figure had reached 42% by 2010-11.

But things have levelled off since then.

From 2010-11, Defra switched from calculating ‘household waste’ to ‘waste from households’ - a very similar name, but the two figures aren’t directly comparable.

That new recycling metric was also at 42% in 2010-11.

In 2023-24, the most recent year available, the figure was at 44%.

Defra’s target is to reach 65% in 2035.

As part of a government scheme, all local authorities must collect household food waste on a weekly basis.

It will then be turned into compost, which will go to support agriculture or community groups.

In Hull, which is set to introduce the new food waste system at the end of March, a not-for-profit organisation says it has already received free council compost to grow fruit and vegetables on the banks of the River Hull in St Peter's Street.

"We're growing the food, but we're also cooking the food," says Rooted in Hull's manager Martin King.

"We're learning about making healthy meals and that has a knock-on effect for our mental health.

"Pretty much everyone that comes here thinks it is a brilliant idea and they think that we should be doing a lot more of this stuff in our city."

Read the full story here.