It would almost be majestic, if it weren’t so smelly.
An enormous wall of trash about 500 feet in length and up to four stories tall was recently discovered near a highway in the English countryside, leading to a national outcry across Britain.
Despite its massive scale, the dump remained hidden from sight for weeks behind a row of trees, leaving many in the country who recently came across images of the heap in disbelief.
“When I was sent the video and pictures, I had to double check and think, is this A.I. or what?” said Liz Gyekye, a spokeswoman for Thames21, an environmental nonprofit. “In terms of the waste tips I’ve seen, this is probably the worst. It’s shocking.”
The mountain of rubbish near Kidlington, about 60 miles northwest of London, is the latest example of what experts say is a growing problem of criminal organizations profiting from illegal dumping.
According to an October report from the House of Lords, “over 38 million tons of waste, enough to fill Wembley Stadium 35 times, is believed to be illegally managed” in the United Kingdom every year, costing around 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion). The House of Lords said that there were currently six similar large-scale dumping sites around the country.
Experts said the issue of illegal dumping, known locally as “fly-tipping,” has worsened in recent years as it has become more expensive to dispose of waste, even as people generate more trash, giving criminal groups a lucrative opportunity.
“These are utterly appalling scenes,” Keir Starmer, the country’s prime minister, said in Parliament this week when asked about the trash heap.
The country’s environment agency, he added, “will use all available powers to make sure that the perpetrators cover the cost of the cleanup, which must now follow.”
The pile of trash, which is made up mostly of household waste, was initially reported to the Environment Agency at the end of June. The organization sent the landlord a cease-and-desist order to prevent further dumping, but when it discovered that the heap had grown in October, it closed the site and opened a criminal investigation.
How so much trash was dumped without anyone noticing is still a mystery. But a landowner next to the site told the BBC that he saw truckloads of refuse dumped there for months this summer under the cover of night.
Calum Miller, a Parliament member who represents the area, said that the site was “well-chosen to hide criminal activity.”
The field where the trash was dumped was long, thin and flanked by fully grown trees. Its proximity to the highway and side roads most likely made getting into and out of the site relatively easy, he said.
Mr. Miller said that an officer at the local waste authority estimated that it would cost more than the local government’s annual budget of £25 million to clean up. He called on the environmental agency to move quickly, noting that the area is next to the Cherwell River, which flows into the Thames, a major waterway, and sits in a flood plain that was fully submerged last year.
“There is a local call for the government to act without delay,” he said, “before we face an environmental disaster.”
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
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