Mapping Waste Crime: The Environment Agency’s Latest Heat Map Findings

The Environment Agency (EA) has recently published the second annual edition of its waste crime heat maps. Building on the first edition, published in 2025, the latest edition was published on 2 September 2026 and analyses reports of suspected waste crime received between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025.

For those unaware, the EA's waste-crime heat maps provide a visual representation of where suspected waste crime is being reported across England. Drawing on reports submitted by the public, the maps highlight areas linked to suspected offences including illegal waste carrying, fly-tipping, unauthorised waste sites, and the burning of waste.

The waste crime heat maps form part of the EA's wider 10 Point Plan to combat waste crime, helping to increase public engagement and improve intelligence gathering. The plan calls for public involvement in the battle of tackling waste crime, encouraging people to report suspected waste crime, illegal dumping, or suspicious movements or burning.

These public reports are curated to develop a waste-specific heat map. These maps are inclusive of allegations or suspicions raised by members of the public; multiple reports relating to the same incident or site; and information used to develop intelligence and guide enforcement activity. Consequently, this information is not verified prior to publication and simply shows the locations from which people have reported suspected waste crimes to the EA’s incident hotline.

The maps are aimed at improving public understanding of the scale and geographic spread of waste crime, while helping the EA to identify emerging hotspots, direct enforcement action, and encourage further public reporting of suspicious activity.

In the recently published report, the highest reporting levels were seen in the West Midlands (1,542 reports) and Yorkshire (1,068 reports), with significant hot spots in the Northwest of England in areas such as Leeds, Manchester, and Burnley as well as London, Birmingham, and Worcester areas. The lowest reporting levels were recorded in Devon and Cornwall, the Northeast, and the West of England region.

The Government, led by Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle, has proposed enhanced surveillance measures, including greater use of drone technology to support regulators in gathering evidence against waste crime.

The Government has set out that they intend to try to reduce the financial incentive for waste crime by strengthening the EA’s ability to identify and confiscate assets acquired through illegal waste activities, including cash, vehicles and property. Additional measures are also being considered to strengthen the identification, restraint and recovery of assets linked to waste crime. The Government has set out they are considering new powers intended to speed up the enforcement of confiscation orders, while the introduction of digital waste tracking from October 2026 is intended to improve the traceability of waste movements. Further reforms proposed for 2027 would replace the current registration regime for waste carriers, brokers and dealers which is intended to create a stricter permitting system designed to improve oversight and deter criminal activity.

To support these initiatives, the Chief Executive of the EA has emphasised the importance of intelligence from members of the public, encouraging individuals to report any suspected waste crime. The EA considers public reporting to be a key tool in identifying offending, developing intelligence and enabling enforcement action. This is particularly significant given estimates from the EA’s National Waste Crime Survey suggesting that only 27% of waste crime incidents are reported, highlighting the continued importance of public engagement in tackling waste crime.