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News, data and images for journalists covering the waste trade. Everything here is free to use with credit to LoadSnap.
Media contact
Callum Wells, founder
info@loadsnap.co.ukFor comment, interviews and figures for your area.
Waste trade in numbers
From the public registers, recounted every night. Last counted 18 Oct 2026.
452,916
waste carriers with a live registration
England, Scotland and Wales
8,173
sites holding a live waste permit
England
114
high priority illegal waste sites
England, Environment Agency list
3,692
registrations still live after the company was dissolved
Matched with Companies House
The map
Carriers and permitted sites counted into hexagons about 15 miles across.
League tables
English postcode areas. Choose a column heading to sort.
| Rank | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | 20,478 | 137 | 334 |
| 2 | Birmingham (B) | 10,609 | 258 | 138 |
| 3 | Leicester (LE) | 10,168 | 150 | 60 |
| 4 | Sheffield (S) | 9,457 | 282 | 78 |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 8,964 | 217 | 52 |
| 6 | Norwich (NR) | 8,603 | 171 | 44 |
| 7 | Portsmouth (PO) | 8,479 | 103 | 72 |
| 8 | Nottingham (NG) | 8,255 | 195 | 66 |
| 9 | Exeter (EX) | 7,534 | 137 | 30 |
| 10 | Bristol (BS) | 7,517 | 141 | 50 |
| 11 | Bournemouth (BH) | 7,394 | 83 | 67 |
| 12 | Brighton (BN) | 7,370 | 89 | 50 |
| 13 | Ipswich (IP) | 7,334 | 132 | 37 |
| 14 | Northampton (NN) | 7,190 | 128 | 42 |
| 15 | Reading (RG) | 7,190 | 76 | 51 |
| 16 | Tonbridge (TN) | 6,926 | 97 | 47 |
| 17 | Medway (ME) | 6,791 | 110 | 63 |
| 18 | Chelmsford (CM) | 6,743 | 128 | 68 |
| 19 | Guildford (GU) | 6,615 | 79 | 40 |
| 20 | York (YO) | 6,501 | 140 | 24 |
Dissolved means a live waste registration whose company Companies House shows as dissolved, matched on company number.
Where people reported waste crime in 2025
The Environment Agency publishes its 2025 waste crime reports only as heat map pictures, with no numbers behind them. These are the hot spots it names, beside our counts for the same places.
| Hot spot | Carriers | Permitted sites |
|---|---|---|
| Leeds | 6,052 | 117 |
| Manchester | 5,672 | 155 |
| Burnley (Blackburn area, BB) | 3,094 | 82 |
| London | 20,478 | 137 |
| Birmingham | 10,609 | 258 |
| Worcester | 2,531 | 35 |
Our figures are by postcode area, for example LS for Leeds. Source: Environment Agency, Waste crime reporting in England heat maps for 2025.
Biggest high priority sites
Illegal or problem waste sites the Environment Agency is watching most closely, by tonnes on site.
- Northwich, CheshireContaminated soil281,000 t
- Pershore 2, WorcestershireMixed shredded waste150,000 to 180,000 t
- Binfield, BerkshireSoil, construction and demolition100,000 t
- Broadbridge Heath, East SussexConstruction and demolition100,000 t
- Over, GloucestershireMixed shredded100,000 t
- Stapleford Tawney, LondonHousehold, mixed shredded waste, soils100,000 t
Source: Environment Agency, Locations of high priority waste sites in England, updated 24 Sep 2026. Each site is placed at the town the list names.
How we counted, as of 18 Oct 2026: carriers come from the public waste carrier registers and permitted sites from the Environment Agency's permit register. Carriers whose registration has lapsed, firms registered only as brokers or dealers, and sites whose permit is closed, revoked, surrendered or suspended are left out. Every site with a live permit and a fixed address is counted, from transfer stations and landfills to mining waste and deposit to land. Permitted sites are counted for England only: Wales has its own permit register, run by Natural Resources Wales, which is not in these figures yet. Welsh waste carriers are counted.
Places are grouped by postcode area, which follows Royal Mail's map rather than council boundaries. "Dissolved but still registered" counts live waste carrier, broker and dealer registrations whose company, matched on its company number, Companies House shows as dissolved.
Images and logos
Free to use with credit to LoadSnap. Maps contain public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Where England's waste is handledJPG, 2400 by 1350Download
Legal waste sites and waste crime reportsJPG, 2400 by 1350DownloadLeague tables
Ready to attach to a story. Drawn from the latest figures each time you download one.
Logos
About LoadSnap
LoadSnap is waste management software for skip hire, grab hire, waste collection, transfer stations and WEEE businesses in the UK. It runs the working day of a waste business in one place: the booking, planning the vehicles, the driver's app on the road, the waste transfer note, taking the load in at the gate, the invoice and the report to DEFRA.
LoadSnap is built in Leeds and was founded by Callum Wells, former head of marketing at vehicle tracking company RAM Tracking. It reports to DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking service through the official API.
- Based in
- Leeds
- Founder
- Callum Wells
- Reports to
- DEFRA Digital Waste Tracking
- App
- iPhone, on the App Store
- Website
- loadsnap.co.uk
For journalists
Free to use with credit to LoadSnap. Ask us for the figures for your area, or for a comment from our founder, Callum Wells.