Isabella Holliday
BBC South

Volunteers at the North Hampshire Repair Cafe say they have stopped roughly 2.7 tonnes of waste – about the weight of a Range Rover – from ending up in landfill since they opened four years ago.

The group is part of a global network of more than 2,500 repair cafes, all focused on giving broken or worn-out household items a second life.

Lead organiser, Derek Prior, says the cafe has become one of his “proudest achievements”. Each month, places like Hartley Wintney and Rotherwick host four‑hour repair sessions, where more than 30 volunteers lend their skills.

They fix everything from old teddies and torn clothes to blunt knives and faulty electronics. Sometimes volunteers even take items home to finish the job.

Others help keep things running smoothly by managing the website, welcoming visitors, or handing out the essential chocolate biscuits.

All repairs are free, with donations simply helping to cover basic costs.

Read the full story here.

Claire Hamilton
Merseyside political reporter

A mother who was worried about the amount of nappies going to landfill says making the switch to cloth nappies is not as difficult as some people may think.

Elizabeth Kane, from Liverpool, started using the washable nappies during the coronavirus pandemic, and now using them for the third time with her youngest child, is urging others to give them a go.

The Reusable Nappies and Wipes Project has funding to support 30 families to trial reusable options through a "nappy library" and learn more about low-waste parenting.

The project, led by a community interest company called Sustainable Starts, has been granted funding from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority.

The company's Anna Martin estimated that if every baby under two in the Liverpool City Region used one reusable nappy a day, more than 2,000 tonnes of waste could be prevented annually.

• 'Reusable nappies aren't as smelly as people think'

Malcolm Prior
Rural affairs producer

It’s clear from the government's figures the illegal dumping of waste is a national problem that isn’t going away.

The data is drawn from all the fly-tipping incidents recorded and dealt with by local authorities in England, in the 12 months to March last year - and it does not paint a pretty picture of our streets, laybys, parks and fields.

In that period, councils dealt with more than 1.25 million incidents - that is a 9% increase on the year before. Almost two-thirds of these fly-tips involved household waste - up 13% since 2023/2024.

Some people may have trusted waste‑disposal firms to get rid of rubbish legally but the government says you must check firms are registered with the Environment Agency., external

Image source, PA Media

Ministers say fly-tippers are being dealt with. They point to the 8% rise in enforcement action by councils last year that we reported earlier and a 9% increase in fixed penalty notices. But the number of court fines has fallen by the same percentage, to just 1,250.

Today, the government issued new guidance telling councils how to seize and destroy vehicles used by the criminals, and to use CCTV, drones and Automatic Number Plate Recognition to track them down.

The Local Government Association says councils are already working tirelessly to crack down on fly-tipping but they need the government to review sentencing guidelines so the criminals could be more heavily fined.

Meanwhile, the government says every fly-tipper caught and convicted should be named and shamed on social media to try to deter other opportunist waste criminals.

Jonah Fisher
Environment Correspondent

Wales has easily the highest recycling rate in the UK - and one of the best in Europe. So how has it done it?

Recycling experts say it's due to consistency of policy and targets, and the fact that every council picks up food waste every week.

To see for ourselves, we went out on a bin collection in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT). On a street corner in the pouring rain we chatted with Anne Crimmage, a proud cabinet member from the local council.

“I think in Rhondda Cynon Taf, our secret is the simple way we have the recycling.” she tells me, “We've got one clear bag for all our dry recycling. We've got a caddy for our food recycling and a larger caddy for the residents to put their food waste out.”

The amount of food waste being collected and recycled in RCT has gone up from 11,000 tonnes in 2022 to 15,000 tonnes in 2025. At the same time the amount of refuse, or the black bag waste, has fallen dramatically.

At the nearby Bryn Pica anaerobic digester they handle all of RCT’s food waste. We’re shown it being loaded into a macerator where it’s turned into a thick, grey sludge that they call “soup”.

That soup is then pumped into huge storage tanks - where it produces biogas which is burnt immediately to generate electricity. The leftover digestate is then used as fertiliser for local farmers.

Ema Sabljak
England Data Unit

Wales has the highest recycling rate for waste from households in the UK.

In 2023, the last comparable year for the four nations, it had a recycling rate of 57%.

Northern Ireland also managed to recycle more than half of waste from households.

Of the four nations, Scotland had the lowest rate at 42%.

The figures are measured a little differently at the local authority level, including things like collections from public spaces like parks.

In Wales and Northern Ireland even the worst performing local authorities still recycled more than two fifths of household waste in 2023-24.

During that same period, Tower Hamlets in England recycled just 16% of household waste.

And in Scotland, figures for 2023 show Shetland was the worst performing council with just over a fifth of household waste recycled.

Lauren Woodhead
England Data Unit

It’s not simple to compare recycling rates internationally.

Countries have their own definitions, standards and release schedules.

But according to a 2024 report by the environmental consultancy service Eunomia, external, Wales is one of the top-ranking countries for recycling.

The report looked at 48 countries, focusing on the municipal waste recycling rate – that is the amount of household waste and waste from other sources that are similar in nature and composition to household waste.

Wales was ranked second, while Austria came first. Northern Ireland, England and Scotland placed 9th, 11th and 15th respectively.

Adam Herriott, from sustainability charity Wrap, said Wales goes “above and beyond” when it comes to recycling.

“They’re generally a little bit more ambitious out of all the four nations across the UK as shown by their very high ranking on the recycling league table,” he said.

Yale University published an Environmental Performance Index, external in 2020. It looked at 180 countries and compared how much recyclable post-consumer material gets recycled.

The United Kingdom was ranked 27th, with South Korea topping the table.

Gina Millson
BBC Radio Lancashire reporter

Image source, Wayne Dixon

A man who walked thousands of miles along the coast of Britain with his dog on mission to pick up litter said it was the best thing he has ever done.

Wayne Dixon and his Northern Inuit Koda set off 10 years ago with the aim of picking up rubbish while raising awareness about littering.

After travelling about 4,000 miles (6,440km), the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to their efforts and the pair never actually completed walking the full length of the coast.

They were forced to return home to Darwen in Lancashire where they continued to pick up litter in and around their local area.

Koda died in 2025, but Wayne described him as "the perfect friend".

• 'My dog inspired my 10-year litter-picking crusade'

Curtis Peters and his family set up a campaign last year to clean up the streets of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, after growing "tired" of the increase in litter.

Since then, the Make Tunstall Great Again group has carried out hundreds of litter picks, sharing some on social media to inspire young people to take pride in their community.

"I think if people have no pride in the area or pride where they live, then they're just going to throw stuff everywhere," says Peters.

• 'It all starts with pride in our area', say litter picking campaigners

Sarah Farmer
Reporter, BBC South

It’s almost time for our last Trash Cam livestream - and the view here at Padworth Recycling Centre in Reading is certainly pretty colourful.

Stacked behind me are bales of sorted plastics and cans, tightly compressed and ready to be shipped off for the next stage of recycling.

But before the rubbish gets compacted into these neat cubes, it goes on a conveyer belt where pickers sort through it to make sure there's nothing in there that shouldn't be!

Join us soon when we'll be giving you a live, behind-the-scenes look at how that's done.

Kay Davidson
BBC Radio Newcastle

People here in Newcastle’s West End say they are fed up of the amount of rubbish that is often strewn across the back lanes that run behind terraced streets.

There are overflowing bins, old mattresses, take-away containers and cardboard boxes which are stuffed with… you guessed it, yet more rubbish.

Residents are angry and disappointed, though many also acknowledge the city council is trying to fix it.

Newcastle City Council says steps have been taken to improve cleanliness, but stress that communities need to play their part too.

Some are doing just that. One local refugee charity has been organising weekly litter picks to try and restore a bit of order.

Those taking part say the act of cleaning up improves their sense of belonging.

Lauren Woodhead
England Data Unit

Image source, Jay Rajput

Of the 10 local authorities with the highest rate of fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 people in 2024-25, eight are in London.

Recording practices do vary over time and between local authorities.

But even taking this into account, London councils have dominated the top 10 for fly-tipping rates every year since 2019-20.

By contrast, the 10 local authorities with the lowest rate of incidents per 1,000 people are much more varied geographically in 2024-25. There has also been more change at that end of the table.

London has recorded the highest rate of incidents per 1,000 people of any region for every year since 2019-20. However, it consistently carries out the highest number of enforcement actions too, with a rise of 12.9% from 2023-24 to 2024-25.

• Read more about the London borough with the lowest recycling rate

Louisa King
BBC Merseyside

Bin Diesel, Oprah Binfrey and The Bincredible Hulk will soon be collecting one Merseyside council’s recycling.

School children in Knowsley took part in a competition to name the borough’s new recycling wagons - and the results are brilliant.

Winning pupils at one Kirkby primary school, Archie and Harry, got a huge surprise this morning when two bin lorries arrived emblazoned with their new names.

Archie - who named Bin Diesel - said it was “boss”, and Harry - who named Oprah Binfrey - said he felt “proud”.

The competition inspired listeners to BBC Radio Merseyside to call in with their own suggestions. Binnie-the-Pooh, Obi Bin Kenobe and Bindiana Jones were some of our favourites. More than 700 names were submitted to the council - which were whittled down to nine winners.

Another favourite was Vincent Van Scoff.

Knowsley Council is to roll out food waste collections across the borough from 13 April. Council leader Graham Morgan said the competition was a fun way to engage the community in something which will mark a big change to the way people deal with their leftovers.

• Listen on BBC Sounds: What would you name a bin lorry?

Jack Fiehn
Political reporter

Image source, Colin Rayner

Farmers in Surrey say that fly-tipping is "relentless" and happening "virtually every week", with the clear-up costing them thousands of pounds a year.

Colin Rayner says the waste dumping is happening on an industrial scale and has forced him to bring in people to guard gates during harvesting.

"We find anything from asbestos to tyres to dead dogs... you name it, we've found it," he says.

"We then have the responsibility of taking it to a waste transfer station and getting rid of it legally."

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said tougher checks and stronger penalties were being introduced.

• 'Relentless fly-tipping happens almost every week'

Image source, Environment Agency

A prolific waste criminal was recently ordered to pay £1.2m in compensation for illegally dumping more than 4,000 tonnes of waste across England.

A nationwide investigation by the Environment Agency uncovered a network of 16 illegal dumping sites, including a manor house in Surrey, a farm in Cambridgeshire and a warehouse in Kent.

The total weight of the waste dumped was about 4,275 tonnes – roughly the weight of 600 African elephants.

Varun Datta, 36, of Central London, was handed a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

He must also pay £1.1m, reflecting the financial benefit from his crimes, plus £100,000 in compensation and £200,000 in prosecution costs.

"Smell and flies were a feature at some of the illegal sites and caused a localised adverse effect to air quality”, said Judge Paul Farrar KC.

He added that landowners were "forced to incur substantial costs in removing the illegal waste".

Read the full story here.

Jonathan Fagg
BBC England Data Unit

The new Defra figures show there were about 572,000 enforcement actions against fly-tipping carried out in England in 2024-25.

That’s up 8% from the year before, broadly in line with the 9% rise seen in fly-tipping incidents.

In about two thirds of those enforcement actions, an investigation was carried out, but no further action has yet been taken.

Other enforcement actions taken can range from a warning letter to prosecutions, although only 1,377 prosecutions were carried out in 2024-25.

The second most common enforcement category was fixed penalty notices (FPNs), with about 69,000 issued in 2024-25.

That’s up 12% from the year before.

Of these FPNs, just over 13,400 were issued specifically for fly-tipping, with other FPNs issued for “Household Duty of Care” or littering “issued in conjunction” with fly-tipping.

Martin Heath
BBC Radio Northampton

The BBC has been following the journey of a bottle after it leaves its home in Hertford.

It gets collected with other recyclables and travels 13 miles (20.9km) to a waste transfer site in Buntingford.

There, the bottle gets picked up by a lorry which takes it to the Pearce Group MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) in St Albans.

The glass is separated from the other waste by machinery and gravity, and any contaminates like paper or plastic are removed.

A large lorry then takes it to one of several sites across the UK where it is sorted by colour using lasers.

Then, the bottle gets crushed into small pieces and recycled – to become another bottle or a jar, or it might end up in aggregates or used for sand blasting.

But the story does not end there – as glass can be recycled over and over again.

Dave Harvey
West of England business and environment correspondent

Bob Evely is a rubbish investigator, and smiles at the double meaning.

He says his team are actually highly effective at tracing who dumped rubbish illegally – according to South Gloucestershire Council, their “enviro-crime squad” prosecutes one case of fly-tipping every week.

Evely is one of many council investigators going out and finding clues in illegally dumped waste piles across the county.

"It is about names and addresses and there's vehicle index numbers, sometimes we find boxes with labels on, and we'll work those back to the companies that supplied them,” he said.

Waste crime costs the UK more than £1bn according to the Environment Agency.

In 2025, it closed down 743 illegal waste sites, but the Agency admitted a further 517 were still active.

On private land, gaining access is slow and difficult, and it is often hard to identify who is actually dumping the waste.

• Rubbish investigators search fly-tips for clues

Image source, Getty Images

The government has issued new guidance today to local authorities that recommends "naming and shaming" people convicted of fly-tipping on social media.

Officials also outlined how councils can search, seize and destroy offenders' vehicles in a bid to boost deterrence.

The guidance also recommended sharing images and videos of their cars being crushed online, as well as advice on taking cases to court and securing convictions against vehicle owners.

"We are empowering local authorities to clamp down on waste cowboys and restore pride in our local areas," says circular economy minister, Mary Creagh.

"I share the public’s fury at seeing our streets, parks and fields used as dumping grounds," she continued.

"Fly-tippers should know – if you use your van to trash our countryside, don’t be surprised when it ends up on the scrapheap."

Sarah Farmer
Reporter, BBC South

Did you catch our Trash Cam earlier?

Well, it won’t be long before the conveyor belt whirs back into action here at Padworth Recycling Centre in Reading.

Right in front of me is a huge mound of mixed plastics collected from homes across West Berkshire - all about to be sorted through live by the team here.

Keep an eye out for a bit of wishcycling as well - that’s when people pop things into the bin hoping they're recyclable… but sadly, they’re not!

Soon you'll be able to tap the Watch Live button at the top of this page to see the whole process unfold live.

Richard Yates, a livestock farmer in Shropshire, says he has seen repeated cases of fly-tipping on his land that seem to be getting worse.

He has found everything from general rubbish to builders’ waste, garden waste, tyres, and chemicals dumped on his farm in Bridgnorth.

"Often it's off the back roads and they pull in, get away pretty quickly, dump their stuff," he says.

"It's pretty annoying because it's my responsibility now to tidy it up."

He adds that farmers were implementing their own measures to try and deter people by doing things like putting large tree trunks in front of gates, and the threat of the issue made farmers hyper-vigilant.

"We note numbers, I made one citizen’s arrest. I wouldn't advocate that as a line of action, but I felt I needed to do it at the time, there's only so much we can take."

• Listen to more on this story on BBC Sounds