🔴 5 BAD 1️⃣ Kent recorded more than 23,000 fly-tipping incidents in 2025/26. Over 2,200 tonnes dumped. 2️⃣ Colchester says £391,000 went on clearing fly-tipping. Money that could have improved communities. 3️⃣ Bristol warns dumped sofas, mattresses and other waste could fuel dangerous unofficial bonfires. 4️⃣ A Wiltshire clothing bank was removed after repeated dumping and problems with emptying it. One less recycling option. 5️⃣ Havering warns some garden waste and communal bin collections face disruption during strike action. The rubbish always ends up somewhere. So does the bill.

🟢 5 GOOD 1️⃣ Hull: eight waste cases brought to court, with fines and costs topping £9,600. 2️⃣ New Romney’s reuse shop expands after saving 31 tonnes of usable items from disposal. Another 2,100 items found new homes. 3️⃣ Crawley collected almost 200 tonnes of food waste in its new service’s first three weeks. 4️⃣ A Port Talbot waste collector who charged £490 then dumped the rubbish has been ordered to pay £2,085.54. 5️⃣ Colchester’s oil-barrel dumper received a suspended prison sentence and 200 hours of unpaid work. Not glamorous. But investigations, reuse and proper collections all count.