National Waste Crime Survey 2025 findings published – higher or lower?

The Environment Agency (EA) has published its findings following the most recent National Waste Crime Survey. The survey was first run as a pilot in 2020 and has since been repeated in 2021, 2023 and 2025.

Waste industry members, landowners and farmers and service providers were all invited to participate. The survey is used to gather insights from the waste industry and potential victims of waste crime.

2025 findings

Waste industry respondents estimated that 20% of waste is illegally managed. This equates to approximately 38.2 million tonnes, enough to fill Wembley stadium 35 times. This figure is a slight increase on 2023 when it was estimated 18% of waste was illegally handled. In relation to the changing scale of waste crime, respondents’ common perceptions are that waste crime has increased (small scale fly tipping) or stayed the same.

It was estimated that 50% of the waste industry is affected by waste crime, causing financial costs in excess of an estimated £60 million across all survey respondents in the last 12 months. Illegal waste sites had the greatest financial impact; 43% of respondents who had been impacted by this crime reported costs of more than £50,000.

Employees in the waste industry estimated 1 in 5 waste industry organisations are committing waste crime, a slight increase on the 18% estimate in 2023. 35% of all waste crimes are thought to be committed by organised crime groups. Again, an increase on 2023 when the figure was 31%.

The biggest motivators for waste crimes are said to be the size of financial gain, low likelihood of detection, and low likelihood of penalties/enforcement being applied. The increased cost of living is considered a problem, with businesses thought to be more willing to supply their waste to criminals to save money, combined with illegal waste handlers looking for ways to undercut the legitimate market.

In terms of reporting waste crimes, in 2025 the estimated proportion of waste crime reported to the EA rose to 27%. The main reason given by respondents for not reporting incidents to the EA was because they felt there is little the Agency can do to bring perpetrators to justice.

EA’s crime priorities

Reinforcing findings in the 2023 survey, respondents felt that the EA is not effective in tackling waste crime. Severe sanctions are required. The most effective deterrents being court issued penalties, visible activities by the regulator (such as increased surveillance, public awareness campaigns, and robust enforcement action), disruption tactics and criminal sanctions.

The EA describes this year’s findings as illustrating “the scale of the challenge ahead” and outlines its crime priorities as:

• stopping and shutting down high risk illegal waste sites
• tackling the misdescription of waste and producer responsibility fraud, and
• preventing the illegal export of waste

The full report can be found here.

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