In February 2020 the 大象传媒 Shared Data Unit reported that organised criminal gangs were being blamed for the continued rise of large fly-tipping incidents across England.
We compared official statistics on flytipping over several years, analysing the scale and cost of major fly-tipping incidents across England.
Our analysis found:
- The number of incidents of large-scale fly-tipping had more than doubled since 2012.
- Police and environmental groups said the nature of fly-tipping was changing - a shift driven by a surge in criminal gangs offering illegal waste clearing services.
- Since the 2012-13 financial year, councils in England had spent just over 拢59m clearing large scale tips. The bill for such incidents was at its highest in 2018-19.
- Tipper lorry loads accounted for just over 125,000 of the total number of major incidents, while 鈥渟ignificant/multi-loads鈥� were recorded for just under 67,000 major incidents.
This piece of content was produced by a regional newspaper reporter working alongside 大象传媒 staff.
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the 大象传媒 and the News Media Association. Stories generated by the partnership included:
- Bristol Live: 13 February 2020
- Bromsgrove Advertiser: 13 February 2020
- The Comet: 13 February 2020
- Chichester Observer: 13 February 2020
- Chronicle Live: 13 February 2020
- Gloucestershire Live: 13 February 2020
- Llanelli Online: 13 February 2020
- North Norfolk News: 13 February 2020
- Northamptonshire Telegraph: 13 February 2020
- Peterborough Telegraph: 13 February 2020
- Portsmouth News: 13 February 2020
- Romford Recorder: 13 February 2020
- Shields Gazette: 13 February 2020
- Sunderland Echo: 13 February 2020
- Wilts and Gloustershire Standard: 13 February 2020
- Worthing Herald: 13 February 2020
- Yorkshire Post: 13 February 2020
- Berkshire Live: 14 February 2020
- Express and Star: 14 February 2020
- Eastern Daily Press: 14 February 2020
- Harrogate Advertiser: 14 February 2020
- Liverpool Echo: 14 February 2020
- Nantwich News: 14 February 2020
- Northampton Chronicle: 14 February 2020
- Rochdale News: 14 February 2020
- Great Yarmouth Mercury: 15 February 2020
- Scarbrough News: 14 February 2020
- Lancaster and Morecambe Citizen: 17 February 2020
- Lancashire Telegraph: 17 February 2020
- Pontefract and Castleford Express: 21 February 2020
- Wakefield Express: 21 February 2020
- Evesham Journal: 24 February 2020
- Brent and Kilburn Times: 25 February 2020
- Essex County Standard: 25 February 2020
- Halesowen News: 25 February 2020
- Ham & High: 26 February 2020
The story was also used by 大象传媒 Breakfast television, 大象传媒 News at One, 大象传媒 Radio 5 Live, 大象传媒 Radio 2 - Jeremy Vine
Visualisation
- Embedded digital video: Tackling the fly-tippers who dump by the truckload
- Line chart: The rising cost of large fly-tipping to English councils 2012-19
- Map: Clean-ups of a lorry-load or more in each English district per 10,000 people 2018-19