Who is responsible for several hundred tonnes of waste dumped near the River Cherwell? Circular Online has spoken to the Environment Agency and waste crime experts to break down the incident.
A fly-tipping incident in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, has become international news and was addressed by the Prime Minister in Parliament.
A man has been arrested in connection with the illegal waste dump, but questions remain about whether others may be involved, how the Environment Agency has responded, and the potential impact of the waste on the local community.
To try and answer some of these questions, Circular Online has put together an explainer on the fly-tipping incident.
What’s happened?
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. Last week, local MP Calum Miller warned the situation had become ‘much more urgent’ as heavy rain meant waste was close to leaching into the River Cherwell.
The Environment Agency says that there has been no evidence of waste breakdown at this stage and it has been conducting tests to determine if there has been any impact on local water quality.
On Friday, the regulator agreed on a plan for using additional protective barriers to minimise waste moving into the river if heavy rainfall occurs.
According to eye-witness accounts, illegal dumping occurred on the site every night for months, involving excavators and truckloads of waste. The items dumped appear to be mostly processed domestic waste, as well as shredded plastics, polystyrene, and tyres.
Reports also suggest there is evidence of waste originating from primary schools and local authorities in south-east England, which may point to large-scale corruption.
Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) Dan Cooke told the BBC that criminals could have made well over £500,000 from dumping the waste.
Cooke continued: “If you do the calculations taking out processing and transport costs, serious money is to be made.”
He also explained that those responsible could face ‘unlimited fines, substantial jail terms and full cost recovery’.
A petition calling for an immediate emergency response from the Environment Agency and the government has been signed nearly 17,000 times. So, how has the regulator responded to the incident?
What has the Environment Agency done?
The Environment Agency says it has convened local partners, including Thames Valley Police and National Highways, as part of a major investigation into the illegal tipping in Kidlington.
Cherwell District Council says it first became aware of illegal activity on the site in June and contacted the Environment Agency, which conducted a site visit in July.
The Environment Agency issued a cease-and-desist letter to the landowner that month. 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.
Environmental law expert Dr Anna Willetts, gunnercook llp, was surprised the Environment Agency didn’t immediately seek a court order after inspecting the site in July.
Dr Willetts, a former CIWM President, told Circular Online that a Court must hear an application for a Restriction Order within 72 hours.
“The impact caused by delay means that the waste is sitting in place for ever long periods of time, days stretching into weeks and months,” Dr Willetts said.
The Environment Agency confirmed officers continued to visit the site regularly over the summer and claims that the ‘majority of the waste’ was tipped before it became aware of the continuing illegal operation.
It says that when it became aware of further illegal activity on the site, it sought a court order to close the site, as required by law.
The Environment Agency is not responsible for clearing the waste from the site, but has launched an investigation into who is responsible for the tipping.
Following a meeting between Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds and Environment Agency chief executive Philip Duffy, the regulator declared the case a critical incident, named ‘Operation Nation’.
The Environment Agency says additional officers have now been deployed to manage the site and to progress the investigation.
On Friday, Environment Agency chief executive Philip Duffy called the illegal tipping in Kidlington ‘totally abhorrent’ and said he shared the local community’s disgust at this case of environmental vandalism.
Duffy said: “We’ve declared a critical incident, meaning the Environment Agency is laser-focused on finding those responsible and ensuring they face the full force of the law.”
How has the government reacted?
The UK Government received criticism last week after comments from the Circular Economy Minister, Mary Creagh.
During a debate in Parliament, Creagh was questioned by the Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, Calum Miller, on the fly-tipping incident in his constituency.
Creagh said the government ‘inherited a whole system failure in the waste industry, from end to end, with failures at every level. That is why there has been an epidemic of illegal fly-tipping’.
CIWM challenged the minister’s comments, saying they misrepresented the legitimate waste industry and deflected blame away from the perpetrators of waste crime.
In an open letter signed by CIWM CEO Sarah Poulter, the organisation said: “It is not the sector or waste industry that is failing, but arguably a systemic failure over time of regulation and effective enforcement that is leading to incidents such as this occurring regularly, at scale and often in plain sight.”
The Environmental Services Association (ESA) also pushed back against the comments. ESA Executive Director Jacob Hayler said while the association agrees the regulatory system is failing, the wording ‘unfairly creates the impression that the waste industry itself is to blame’ for fly-tipping activity.
Kier Starmer was asked about the incident during Prime Minister’s Questions. Leader of the Lib Dems Ed Davey asked if the Prime Minister would instruct the Environment Agency to clean up the waste immediately.
The PM called the situation ‘utterly appalling’ and said the Environment Agency will use all available powers to ensure that the perpetrators cover the cost of cleaning up the waste.
Dr Willetts was sceptical that the Environment Agency would be able to make those responsible for the site clean it up due to the complexity of the operation and the scale of the cost.
Cherwell District Council estimated the cost of removing the waste would be greater than its annual budget, which is £26.2 million for the 2025/26 financial year.
“Once the polluters are located, either the EA (Environment Agency) or the polluters would need to classify the waste – assuming the EA trusts the polluters to properly undertake a WM3 assessment of the waste and pay for it – to determine its characteristics and what site would be able to accept it,” Dr Willetts explained.
“The polluters would then need to be supervised by the EA to start engaging waste hauliers to move the waste to said permitted sites, using the relevant written descriptions of waste to accompany each load.”
Commenting after their meeting with the Environment Agency, Defra Secretary Emma Reynolds said she was pleased the regulator is now installing additional barriers to prevent pollution of the Cherwell River.
Reynolds continued: “I am being regularly updated on the ongoing investigation, and I want to see justice served for this disgusting crime.”
Is there a waste crime crisis?
The Environment Agency has faced growing criticism over its handling of waste crime cases.
A House of Lords inquiry said it was 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 were also critical of the police, saying they were ‘unimpressed’ with the lack of interest they showed in tackling waste crime, calling it ‘critically under-prioritised’.
Responding to the inquiry into waste crime, CIWM’s Dan Cooke said the government must treat tackling waste crime as a ‘definitive sector and societal priority’.
The inquiry also found that the Environment Agency is ‘heavy-handedly regulating permitted waste sites’ and pursuing their operators for infractions that ‘pale into insignificance’ compared to some of the serious and organised waste crime occurring outside the regulatory framework.
This was a view Dr Willetts expressed while giving evidence as part of the Lords’ inquiry.
“The Environment Agency certainly appears to have plenty of resources to utilise on regulated industry,” Dr Willetts told Circular Online.
“This is the frustration and why we say that the Agency appears to place too much emphasis on compliant sites rather than enforcing against illegal ones.”
“It seems clear that this approach undermines their ability – or perhaps choice is a better word, rather than ability – to visit and enforce against large-scale fly tipping.”
What happens next?
An Environment Agency investigation is underway, and they will work with police and partners through the Joint Unit for Waste Crime.
If the perpetrators are caught and a prosecution is successful, the regulator could attempt to recover the clean-up and land remediation costs.
It is currently unclear how high these costs could rise due to the lack of clarity on waste types, classifications, tonnages and clean-up options, but estimates vary between £1.5m and £26m.
CIWM and its sector partners have announced they will publish a position statement shortly that includes practicable actions that government, regulators and sector stakeholders can take to tackle waste crime more urgently.
CIWM says the position statement will also set out how to reduce the risk of illegal fly-tipping incidents that ‘cause misery and anxiety to communities, undermine the professional sector and damage local economies’.