More than 700 illegal tips were shut down in 2024/25, but data released by the Environment Agency has revealed some 517 dumps were still active at the end of last year.
Among the largest sites that have yet to be cleared up are a 280,000-tonne site in Cheshire, two 50,000-tonne sites in Lancashire and Cornwall, a 36,000-tonne tip in Kent and a 20,000-tonne dump in Oxfordshire.
Most sites are in countryside locations, often hidden, and on what should be agricultural land.
Police say many are run by organised crime gangs, who are making cash by charging much less than legitimate operators to take and bury waste.
An Environment Agency spokesman said it was committed to tackling waste crime and was “pulling every lever to disrupt those who profit from the harm illegal waste sites cause”.
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Baroness Sheehan, who chairs the House of Lords environment and climate change committee, which has been investigating waste crime, said the BBC’s research had “exposed widespread illegal waste dumping across the country”.
“Clearly, whatever actions the government is taking are not sufficient to deal with the problem,” she said.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “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.”
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