Reporting fly-tipping, large-scale dumping or other waste crimes

How you report a waste crime depends on the type of crime and whether it’s small or large scale.

Reporting small-scale dumping (‘fly-tipping’)

Fly-tipping is illegal dumping of household, commercial or industrial waste on a small scale, for example:

several bin bags of rubbish
1 or 2 pieces of furniture
small commercial waste loads
garden waste
small amounts of hazardous waste, such as a drum of industrial waste or a sheet of asbestos

To report fly-tipping in England, Scotland or Wales, contact the environmental health team at your local council.

Dumping on a larger scale may be on private land or in a remote area. It can include:

To report large-scale waste dumping, call the Environment Agency.

Environment Agency incident hotline
Telephone: 0800 80 70 60
24-hour service
Find out about call charges

You can also report large-scale waste dumping anonymously to Crimestoppers.

Crimestoppers
Report crime online
Telephone: 0800 555 111
24-hour service
Find out about call charges

You’ll need to decide how to deal with the waste and pay for someone to dispose of it properly.

You could be fined up to £200 if you do not dispose of the waste properly.

If there’s a risk to the environment or human health, call the Environment Agency incident hotline.

Other large-scale waste crimes include:

running a waste site without an environmental permit
deliberately labelling large amounts of waste incorrectly
importing or exporting waste illegally
illegally burning waste
moving waste without being registered as a waste carrier - if you hire a private company to move waste, you should check that they’re registered

You can report large-scale waste crimes to: