2025 was such a hectic year for the resource and waste sector that it’s hard to remember everything that happened. To remind you of some of the seismic events from a manic 12 months, check out our giant-size end-of-year round-up.
So much has happened this past year we’ve had to expand our usual list to cover 12 of the year’s most significant developments. Starting with:
150-metre fly-tipping mountain in Oxfordshire
A fly-tipping incident in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, has become international news and was addressed by the Prime Minister in Parliament.
Since the summer, what appears to be an organised network of criminals has dumped truckloads of waste on a site between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
The mountain of waste is approximately 150 metres long, 10 metres wide, 6 metres high, and estimated to weigh several hundred tonnes.
A 39-year-old man from the Guildford area has been arrested as part of an investigation into the incident and remains in custody.
The Environment Agency issued a cease-and-desist letter to the landowner in July and the regulator later secured a court order to close all public access to the site and prevent further tipping on 23 October.
The 16-week gap between the cease-and-desist letter and the court order has led to criticism from inside the waste sector and from legal professionals.
The Environment Agency confirmed officers continued to visit the site regularly over the summer and said that when it became aware of further illegal activity, it sought a court order to close the site.
Defra hit with major cuts in 2025 Spending Review
As part of the UK Government’s 2025 Spending Review this summer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would face an average 2.7% cut per year to its day-to-day budget.
That equates to a fall in resource spending from £4.8 billion in 2025–26 to £4.7 billion by 2028–29, with only the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Transport seeing deeper operational budget reductions.
Not long afterwards, reports suggested that Defra planned to reduce its workforce by 10%, cutting 750 positions.
Insight: Dan Cooke, CIWM Director of Policy Comms & External Affairs
A spending review is always a milestone event for the UK Government, setting out departmental spending totals for the next few years, and for capital spending to 2029/30. This was the first multi-year review since 2021, and having a longer-term approach to public spending is welcome for local authorities, our sector and many of our members.
Not so welcome was the fact that Defra was one of the ‘losers’ in terms of budget reduction levels and resultant job losses. Whilst it’s recognised that the government has clear priorities for growth and renewal, and that many organisations go through peaks and troughs of resourcing and workforce capacity, it is of clear concern that this came at a crucial time of change and delivery for the resources and waste sector.
Nevertheless, CIWM and the wider sector continue to work closely with Defra and other key departments to ensure the successful ongoing implementation of the Resources and Waste Strategy (packaging) reforms, to maximise our contribution to growth, jobs and thriving economies, and to the transition to greater resource resilience and efficiency and a more circular economy.
Birmingham bin strikes
Since January, refuse workers in Birmingham have been on strike as part of a dispute between the City Council and Unite the Union.
Unfortunately, there is still no end in sight with refuse workers voting to extend strike action beyond May 2026 unless a deal is reached.
The dispute is over the council’s decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles. Unite said staff performing the ‘safety-critical’ WRCO role will lose around £8,000 a year under the plans.
This figure is disputed by the council with an official in the council telling Circular Online that claims that 150 people could lose £8,000 a year in pay are ‘incorrect’.
A major incident was declared in April when over 17,000 tonnes of waste was uncollected across the city.
An increasingly bitter war of words between the union and the council escalated after a video was leaked that appeared to show a member of staff for the council saying agency workers will be banned from permanent roles if they join strike action.
The video, alongside claims of ‘bullying, harassment and intimidation’, led to agency staff voting to cross the picket line and join the strikes.
Simpler Recycling comes into force
New Simpler Recycling rules on how workplaces in England sort their recycling and waste came into force in March.
Workplaces with 10 or more employees now need to arrange for the collection of:
- Dry recyclable materials – including plastic, metal, glass, and paper and card – unless their waste collector collects them together.
- Food waste.
- Residual (non-recyclable) waste.
By 31 March 2026, local authorities will be required to collect the core recyclable waste streams from all households in England.
This includes introducing weekly food waste collections for most homes, unless their councils have a transitional arrangement in place, giving them a later start date in legislation.
Insight: Cathy Cook, the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) Chair
This year has felt like the first proper steps in implementing Simpler Recycling in England. After years of discussions, planning, consultations and legislation, 2025 was the year that larger businesses were required to begin the separation of their waste for recycling.
It’s not been flawless by any stretch of the imagination, with communication and enforcement feeling misaligned very much being put in a ‘cart before the horse’ position, but it’s a meaningful starting point none-the-less.
2026 is an opportunity to build as we take these learnings forward to ensure that the next set of legislated changes, particularly the widespread rollout of kerbside food waste collections from households in April, are effective. This will require clear, widespread communication to ensure strong public engagement.
As always, councils are busy with both the changes and day-to-day running of waste and recycling collection services.
Additional changes are also required by April 2027 and with local authority collections of plastic films and flexibles for recycling due, the ball is back in the court of government and the recycling sector to ensure that viable markets exist to ensure collections are sustainable.
First EPR for packaging invoices sent
As part of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging, businesses must register and report data about the packaging they supply or import, and cover the costs of managing household packaging waste.
The first fees for packaging placed on the market in 2024 were invoiced in October.
Insight: Jordan Girling, Head of EPR at WRAP
Producer Responsibility has been applied to waste streams like batteries and WEEE for twenty plus years, but this is still big news for the UK, and the next EPR move could be even bigger.
Last November, it established a Circular Economy Taskforce split into sub-groups focussing on problematic waste streams to prioritise, including textiles.
The taskforce has been working all year with industry experts to co-design a strategy that helps us move towards a circular economy, and the first outputs are expected in January. We hope it will recommend an EPR scheme for textiles.
Throughout 2025, WRAP has been speaking with stakeholders across the UK’s textiles value chain to glean insights and opinions on what such an EPR scheme for textiles should look like.
We’ve presented these collective opinions to the Taskforce and to the UK Government to help inform forthcoming policy recommendations, and WRAP is about to publish this as a Blueprint for a UK Textiles EPR.
If urgent action is not taken to maintain critical textile recycling infrastructure, then local authorities could see costs increase from £73 million to £137 million per year and rise to £200 million per year, from 2035.
Additional landfilling and incineration will also push emissions up by some 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.
Lords inquiry into waste crime criticises ‘incompetence’ at Environment Agency
A House of Lords inquiry has said it’s difficult to conclude that ‘incompetence’ at the Environment Agency has not been a factor in failures to prevent and effectively prosecute waste crime.
The Lords said they were ‘deeply concerned’ about what the inquiry found was the ‘inadequacy’ of the current approach to tackling waste crime.
The inquiry’s report was also critical of the police, saying they were ‘unimpressed’ with the lack of interest they showed in tackling waste crime.
Insight: Sam Corp, Head of Regulation at the Environmental Services Association (ESA).
On behalf of the ESA and its members, I was pleased to have had the opportunity to provide evidence to the House of Lords’ Environment and Climate Change Committee during its inquiry into serious and organised waste crime in September.
As the committee acknowledged in its letter, criminality is endemic in the waste sector yet, despite the evidence – known all too well to our sector – organised criminal gangs are exploiting weak enforcement, soft penalties and regulatory failures to make millions at the expense of the environment, communities and legitimate operators.
Without long-overdue reform, greater funding, and a clear idea of how to effectively deploy further resources, organised criminals will continue to profit at the expense of communities, the environment and legitimate businesses – so the ESA urges government to adopt the recommendations of the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee; conduct a comprehensive independent review without further delay; and implement some ‘quick wins’ in the meantime.
Digital Waste Tracking delay
Digital Waste Tracking was delayed this year and is now set to be implemented in April 2026.
Defra said it has listened to feedback from industry stakeholders who expressed concerns that the original delivery time presented ‘significant challenges’.
Insight: David Gudgeon, Head of External Affairs at Reconomy Connect, a brand by international circularity specialists Reconomy
Earlier this year, the waste industry breathed a sigh of relief as Defra delayed the mandatory rollout of DWT to April 2026 and unveiled a phased implementation plan.
The original timeline of April 2025 was far too ambitious, with significant IT challenges, industry concerns and communication gaps making for what would have been a chaotic and unsuccessful launch.
It provides a crucial window for receiving sites to get hands-on with the system, participate fully in the beta testing, and weave DWT into daily operations ahead of mandatory compliance.
The benefits of DWT are monumental. A digital, real-time tracking system will replace paper-heavy processes, API integration will cut down administrative burdens, improve compliance, increase transparency, and strike a blow against waste crime.
Of course, there are hurdles to overcome. Smaller operators and those in rural areas may struggle with the digital leap, and connectivity or technical know-how will need careful attention. But the phased rollout, coupled with active industry engagement, gives everyone the chance to iron out the wrinkles and ensure the system works for all.
If successful, DWT has the potential to revolutionise the UK’s waste management sector, tighten up our resource efficiency, and help the UK take a material step towards a truly circular economy.
Waste, carrier, broker, dealers reforms
This year, Defra confirmed it was updating key regulations for people and businesses involved in transporting and managing waste.
The terminology is set to change from waste carriers, brokers and dealers (CBD) to ‘waste controllers’ and ‘waste transporters’.
Existing registrations will also be replaced by a ‘standard rules’ environmental permit or a registered exemption.
Insight: Richard Hudson, CIWM Technical Manager, Policy & Technical Team
Seven years on from its inclusion in 2018’s Resources & Waste Strategy, England’s much needed waste carrier, broker and dealer (CBD) reforms are yet to be implemented. However, against a background of ever increasing waste crime, there was progress in August with the publication of Defra’s policy paper.
With existing CBD terminology replaced by ‘waste controller’, ‘waste transporter’, and ‘waste controller-transporter’, the new requirements will also involve registrations being replaced by more onerous ‘standard rules’ environmental permits or registered exemptions, together with mandatory technical competence for permit holders and nominated persons.
Despite no indication of timescales, and parts of the proposals subject to further consultation, it was nevertheless an important development in the fight against waste crime and to support legitimate operators in our sector. CIWM has called on Defra to issue the outstanding consultations and confirm a date for implementation as soon as possible.
Government backtracks on controversial landfill tax overhaul
The UK Government backtracked on plans to transition to a single rate of landfill tax by 2030, following pushback from the construction industry.
A consultation launched in April proposed abolishing the lower rate of landfill tax and significantly restricting exemptions.
The reforms faced significant criticism from the construction industry, with FCC Environment warning that they could make nationally significant infrastructure projects and major housing projects unviable.
The Treasury has now promised to prevent the gap between the two rates of Landfill Tax widening over the coming years by maintaining the differential between the two rates in cash terms.
Insight: Roland Williams, General Manager at FCC Environment
Scrapping the proposed increases for Landfill Tax was a sensible move from the Chancellor. Pressing ahead with the proposals would have had a devastating impact on housebuilders, construction firms and infrastructure developers, and would have been a nail in the coffin for the Government’s target of building 1.5 million homes by 2030.
The proposals would have made many housing developments unviable, or resulted in house prices being increased, putting even more pressure on the housing crisis.
Our research found the near 3,000% tax increase would have added a £1.26 billion cost on development projects in London alone. To put this further into perspective, HS2 still must excavate 3,500,000 tonnes of soils, the majority of which are unsuitable for reuse.
The additional tax burden could have increased the project’s landfill tax fee exponentially seeing the current cost of £13,000,000 going up to over £440,000,000, all from the taxpayers’ pocket.
Alongside the economic impact, the policy would have undoubtedly opened the door for illegal operators to take advantage of legitimate companies by under cutting them and would have led to an increase of fly tipping and other forms of waste crime.
It is reassuring the government listened to industry and decided to scrap the proposed increase and that they understand the impact those reforms would have had on growth.
Circular economy strategy delay
The UK Government’s much anticipated Circular Economy Strategy, which was expected to be published in October, was delayed until 2026.
Circular Online understands that Defra expects to publish the Strategy, which Reynolds referred to as the Circular Economy Growth Plan, for consultation in the coming months. The public consultation on the Strategy was due to originally begin in October this year.
The Circular Economy Taskforce, an independent advisory group comprising experts and leaders from various sectors, are working on the strategy.
Plastic recycling industry at breaking point
The European Union’s plastic recycling industry is at a ‘breaking point’, Plastic Recyclers Europe has said.
Plastic Recyclers Europe, which represents European plastics recyclers who reprocess plastic waste, said a sharp decline in domestic production, increased imports, and rising economic pressures are forcing company closures.
Insight: Stuart Foster, CEO of RECOUP and CIWM East Anglian Centre Co-Chair
The market challenges and systemic failures were already happening as we came into 2025. But with no real intervention or policy change the situation as we leave 2025 is markedly worse. Every month brings with it new reports of plastic recycling site closures and reduced capacity across Europe.
Despite ongoing circular economy strategy discussions and aspirations, the reality on the ground is very different. The causes have been well reported, including cheap imported virgin materials, high energy and operational costs, a softening of recycled content commitments, and under-resourced policing to identify and prevent fraud.
The anticipated growth in chemical recycling capacity has also stalled with a number of delays and cancelled European investment plans.
For those who benefit financially in the short term from using cheap imported virgin material, a local circular economy for plastics can feel a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas.
However, with the UK and EU generally ahead in circular economy thinking and with new legislation coming through, the long term gains of using recycled plastics together with a sustainable and healthy European plastic reprocessing infrastructure has to be part of the solution.
Health and Safety stats
Over the past year, six people – three working in the waste sector and three members of the public – suffered fatal injuries, according to Health and Safety Executive statistics.
The latest statistics show the fatal injury rate in the waste sector is 3.29 per 100,000 workers, which is around 8.2 times the all industry rate. Only the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector are higher.
1,530 non-fatal injuries to employees were reported by employers in 2024/25. Slips, trips or falls accounted for 41% of these accidents, followed by falls from height (18%), and being struck by moving objects (13%).