We’re wrapping up our live page coverage now - thanks so much for joining us as we have dug through all things rubbish and recycling across England and beyond.

We have learned that one in four councils in England will miss the food waste collection deadline, and that there has been an increase in large-scale fly-tipping - with campaigners raising concerns about organised crime as a driving force.

We have also had some tips from viral sensation The No 1 Bin Man, a top ‘binfluencer’ who spends time on social media answering people’s questions on what to recycle and how.

And we have seen how communities innovate and work together to recycle and reuse as much waste as possible - from a family-run litter picking campaign to a reusable nappies and wipes project, and one woman who has taken recycling to a whole new level.

If you've got a story to share with us from your community or an issue you would like your local BBC team to investigate, you can get in touch here.

Phil Shepka
Political Reporter, Cambridgeshire

A city centre refuse collector said he has seen "weird and wonderful things" in bins, including a mahogany wall clock.

Chris Lively, 64, has worked for Cambridge City Council for more than two decades.

He says some of the challenges he faces include "cyclists locking their bikes to the bins so we can't actually get to them to open them" and the weather.

"Other than that, people tend to leave us alone, and we just crack on with what we do," he says.

• 'I've found tents & a mahogany wall clock in bins'

Judy Hobson
Environment Correspondent

There is a drive to push up recycling rates in the UK from about 44% of waste recycled to 65% by 2035.

Greater Manchester is doing well. It recycles around 50% of its waste.

But are your household’s efforts to recycle being undermined by these surprising facts shared by environmental charity WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme?

• One household bin containing the wrong recycling could mean a whole truckload ends up in landfill instead. Recycling should never be placed in plastic bags or it risks the same fate.
• Broken glass must go in general waste, and lids should be taken off bottles otherwise liquid can be stored inside that will be rejected by the recycling plant.

• Also, did you know that if everyone recycled just one toilet roll tube per week, it could power 26,000 UK homes for a year?

Recycling is part of everyday life for many households - but few of us see what happens behind the scenes.

Once the bin lorry pulls away, your recycling begins a remarkable journey through a high-tech sorting centre where machines and workers prepare it for a brand-new life.

Find out more in the story below.

• Inside a recycling centre: What happens to our rubbish?

Dan Ragusa
BBC Tees

Every Wednesday Randal sticks on his high-vis vest, gloves and sunglasses before heading out on to the streets of Ingleby Barwick, Stockton.

For more than 25 years he’s been making sure that all of the bins in his neighbourhood are at the side of the kerb, to make it easier for the waste crew to collect them.

The 52-year-old does this voluntarily with his dad Alan, saying he “just likes to help people”.

No matter the weather, rain or shine, Randal, who has Down's Syndrome, is out every single week helping the crew.

One woman in Southsea has taken recycling to a whole new level.

Louise Lea transforms unwanted items such as bouncy castles, coffee pods and bottle tops into jewellery.

"Being on the coast, there is obviously a lot of inflatables, and then bouncy castles from funfairs and kids' days out," Louise says.

"That's the sort of thing that you might not even think could have a second life."

Katy Lewis
BBC News Online

Fashion students in Cambridge are making waves by turning old boat sails into high-end garments.

First-years on the BA (Hons) Fashion Design course at Anglia Ruskin University are using kite sails from dinghies to create clothes with pattern-cutting techniques that leave minimal waste.

The university has partnered with Clean Sailors, which runs a recycling scheme called ReSail.

The organisation says more than 97% of sails end up in landfill and there are currently no formal recycling facilities for them anywhere in the world.

Lecturer Sarah Graham said: "It's really important that we address the issues that are affecting the fashion industry…. and sustainability is a really important issue."

• From high seas to high fashion: The students making new clothes from old sails

Isabella Holliday
BBC South

Volunteers at the North Hampshire Repair Cafe say they have stopped roughly 2.7 tonnes of waste – about the weight of a Range Rover – from ending up in landfill since they opened four years ago.

The group is part of a global network of more than 2,500 repair cafes, all focused on giving broken or worn-out household items a second life.

Lead organiser, Derek Prior, says the cafe has become one of his “proudest achievements”. Each month, places like Hartley Wintney and Rotherwick host four‑hour repair sessions, where more than 30 volunteers lend their skills.

They fix everything from old teddies and torn clothes to blunt knives and faulty electronics. Sometimes volunteers even take items home to finish the job.

Others help keep things running smoothly by managing the website, welcoming visitors, or handing out the essential chocolate biscuits.

All repairs are free, with donations simply helping to cover basic costs.

Read the full story here.

Claire Hamilton
Merseyside political reporter

A mother who was worried about the amount of nappies going to landfill says making the switch to cloth nappies is not as difficult as some people may think.

Elizabeth Kane, from Liverpool, started using the washable nappies during the coronavirus pandemic, and now using them for the third time with her youngest child, is urging others to give them a go.

The Reusable Nappies and Wipes Project has funding to support 30 families to trial reusable options through a "nappy library" and learn more about low-waste parenting.

The project, led by a community interest company called Sustainable Starts, has been granted funding from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority.

The company's Anna Martin estimated that if every baby under two in the Liverpool City Region used one reusable nappy a day, more than 2,000 tonnes of waste could be prevented annually.

• 'Reusable nappies aren't as smelly as people think'

Malcolm Prior
Rural affairs producer

It’s clear from the government's figures the illegal dumping of waste is a national problem that isn’t going away.

The data is drawn from all the fly-tipping incidents recorded and dealt with by local authorities in England, in the 12 months to March last year - and it does not paint a pretty picture of our streets, laybys, parks and fields.

In that period, councils dealt with more than 1.25 million incidents - that is a 9% increase on the year before. Almost two-thirds of these fly-tips involved household waste - up 13% since 2023/2024.

Some people may have trusted waste‑disposal firms to get rid of rubbish legally but the government says you must check firms are registered with the Environment Agency., external

Image source, PA Media

Ministers say fly-tippers are being dealt with. They point to the 8% rise in enforcement action by councils last year that we reported earlier and a 9% increase in fixed penalty notices. But the number of court fines has fallen by the same percentage, to just 1,250.

Today, the government issued new guidance telling councils how to seize and destroy vehicles used by the criminals, and to use CCTV, drones and Automatic Number Plate Recognition to track them down.

The Local Government Association says councils are already working tirelessly to crack down on fly-tipping but they need the government to review sentencing guidelines so the criminals could be more heavily fined.

Meanwhile, the government says every fly-tipper caught and convicted should be named and shamed on social media to try to deter other opportunist waste criminals.

Jonah Fisher
Environment Correspondent

Wales has easily the highest recycling rate in the UK - and one of the best in Europe. So how has it done it?

Recycling experts say it's due to consistency of policy and targets, and the fact that every council picks up food waste every week.

To see for ourselves, we went out on a bin collection in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT). On a street corner in the pouring rain we chatted with Anne Crimmage, a proud cabinet member from the local council.

“I think in Rhondda Cynon Taf, our secret is the simple way we have the recycling.” she tells me, “We've got one clear bag for all our dry recycling. We've got a caddy for our food recycling and a larger caddy for the residents to put their food waste out.”

The amount of food waste being collected and recycled in RCT has gone up from 11,000 tonnes in 2022 to 15,000 tonnes in 2025. At the same time the amount of refuse, or the black bag waste, has fallen dramatically.

At the nearby Bryn Pica anaerobic digester they handle all of RCT’s food waste. We’re shown it being loaded into a macerator where it’s turned into a thick, grey sludge that they call “soup”.

That soup is then pumped into huge storage tanks - where it produces biogas which is burnt immediately to generate electricity. The leftover digestate is then used as fertiliser for local farmers.

Ema Sabljak
England Data Unit

Wales has the highest recycling rate for waste from households in the UK.

In 2023, the last comparable year for the four nations, it had a recycling rate of 57%.

Northern Ireland also managed to recycle more than half of waste from households.

Of the four nations, Scotland had the lowest rate at 42%.

The figures are measured a little differently at the local authority level, including things like collections from public spaces like parks.

In Wales and Northern Ireland even the worst performing local authorities still recycled more than two fifths of household waste in 2023-24.

During that same period, Tower Hamlets in England recycled just 16% of household waste.

And in Scotland, figures for 2023 show Shetland was the worst performing council with just over a fifth of household waste recycled.

Lauren Woodhead
England Data Unit

It’s not simple to compare recycling rates internationally.

Countries have their own definitions, standards and release schedules.

But according to a 2024 report by the environmental consultancy service Eunomia, external, Wales is one of the top-ranking countries for recycling.

The report looked at 48 countries, focusing on the municipal waste recycling rate – that is the amount of household waste and waste from other sources that are similar in nature and composition to household waste.

Wales was ranked second, while Austria came first. Northern Ireland, England and Scotland placed 9th, 11th and 15th respectively.

Adam Herriott, from sustainability charity Wrap, said Wales goes “above and beyond” when it comes to recycling.

“They’re generally a little bit more ambitious out of all the four nations across the UK as shown by their very high ranking on the recycling league table,” he said.

Yale University published an Environmental Performance Index, external in 2020. It looked at 180 countries and compared how much recyclable post-consumer material gets recycled.

The United Kingdom was ranked 27th, with South Korea topping the table.

Gina Millson
BBC Radio Lancashire reporter

Image source, Wayne Dixon

A man who walked thousands of miles along the coast of Britain with his dog on mission to pick up litter said it was the best thing he has ever done.

Wayne Dixon and his Northern Inuit Koda set off 10 years ago with the aim of picking up rubbish while raising awareness about littering.

After travelling about 4,000 miles (6,440km), the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to their efforts and the pair never actually completed walking the full length of the coast.

They were forced to return home to Darwen in Lancashire where they continued to pick up litter in and around their local area.

Koda died in 2025, but Wayne described him as "the perfect friend".

• 'My dog inspired my 10-year litter-picking crusade'

Curtis Peters and his family set up a campaign last year to clean up the streets of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, after growing "tired" of the increase in litter.

Since then, the Make Tunstall Great Again group has carried out hundreds of litter picks, sharing some on social media to inspire young people to take pride in their community.

"I think if people have no pride in the area or pride where they live, then they're just going to throw stuff everywhere," says Peters.

• 'It all starts with pride in our area', say litter picking campaigners

Sarah Farmer
Reporter, BBC South

It’s almost time for our last Trash Cam livestream - and the view here at Padworth Recycling Centre in Reading is certainly pretty colourful.

Stacked behind me are bales of sorted plastics and cans, tightly compressed and ready to be shipped off for the next stage of recycling.

But before the rubbish gets compacted into these neat cubes, it goes on a conveyer belt where pickers sort through it to make sure there's nothing in there that shouldn't be!

Join us soon when we'll be giving you a live, behind-the-scenes look at how that's done.

Kay Davidson
BBC Radio Newcastle

People here in Newcastle’s West End say they are fed up of the amount of rubbish that is often strewn across the back lanes that run behind terraced streets.

There are overflowing bins, old mattresses, take-away containers and cardboard boxes which are stuffed with… you guessed it, yet more rubbish.

Residents are angry and disappointed, though many also acknowledge the city council is trying to fix it.

Newcastle City Council says steps have been taken to improve cleanliness, but stress that communities need to play their part too.

Some are doing just that. One local refugee charity has been organising weekly litter picks to try and restore a bit of order.

Those taking part say the act of cleaning up improves their sense of belonging.

Lauren Woodhead
England Data Unit

Image source, Jay Rajput

Of the 10 local authorities with the highest rate of fly-tipping incidents per 1,000 people in 2024-25, eight are in London.

Recording practices do vary over time and between local authorities.

But even taking this into account, London councils have dominated the top 10 for fly-tipping rates every year since 2019-20.

By contrast, the 10 local authorities with the lowest rate of incidents per 1,000 people are much more varied geographically in 2024-25. There has also been more change at that end of the table.

London has recorded the highest rate of incidents per 1,000 people of any region for every year since 2019-20. However, it consistently carries out the highest number of enforcement actions too, with a rise of 12.9% from 2023-24 to 2024-25.

• Read more about the London borough with the lowest recycling rate

Louisa King
BBC Merseyside

Bin Diesel, Oprah Binfrey and The Bincredible Hulk will soon be collecting one Merseyside council’s recycling.

School children in Knowsley took part in a competition to name the borough’s new recycling wagons - and the results are brilliant.

Winning pupils at one Kirkby primary school, Archie and Harry, got a huge surprise this morning when two bin lorries arrived emblazoned with their new names.

Archie - who named Bin Diesel - said it was “boss”, and Harry - who named Oprah Binfrey - said he felt “proud”.

The competition inspired listeners to BBC Radio Merseyside to call in with their own suggestions. Binnie-the-Pooh, Obi Bin Kenobe and Bindiana Jones were some of our favourites. More than 700 names were submitted to the council - which were whittled down to nine winners.

Another favourite was Vincent Van Scoff.

Knowsley Council is to roll out food waste collections across the borough from 13 April. Council leader Graham Morgan said the competition was a fun way to engage the community in something which will mark a big change to the way people deal with their leftovers.

• Listen on BBC Sounds: What would you name a bin lorry?

Jack Fiehn
Political reporter

Image source, Colin Rayner

Farmers in Surrey say that fly-tipping is "relentless" and happening "virtually every week", with the clear-up costing them thousands of pounds a year.

Colin Rayner says the waste dumping is happening on an industrial scale and has forced him to bring in people to guard gates during harvesting.

"We find anything from asbestos to tyres to dead dogs... you name it, we've found it," he says.

"We then have the responsibility of taking it to a waste transfer station and getting rid of it legally."

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said tougher checks and stronger penalties were being introduced.

• 'Relentless fly-tipping happens almost every week'