Mountain of illegally dumped trash near Oxford river causes outcry in England

London: A mountain of illegally dumped trash near a river in the country outside Oxford was visible from space but few on Earth seemed to notice the mess.

Hidden behind a thick row of trees from the busy highway next to it, the pile grew to the length of three Olympic-sized swimming pools and reached up to the roof of a two-story house as motorists unknowingly sped past.

How the garbage got there and how long the massive pile had been growing remains a mystery, but its recent discovery has caused an outcry about a brewing environmental crisis and drawn attention to England’s uphill battle to tackle criminal gangs suspected of illegally dumping waste.

“How they managed to escape the eyes is quite shocking,” said Liz Gyekye of Thames 21, an environmental charity. “Let’s hope that these perpetrators are caught swiftly and punished for their crimes. This is an environmental catastrophe unfolding at the doorstep of one of our nation’s most treasured rivers.”

With winter rains coming and the trash sitting in a floodplain, there are concerns it will be swept into the adjacent River Cherwell, which meanders downstream through the Oxford University campus before meeting the River Thames that eventually flows to London and then out to sea.

Criminal investigation underway

Although it was only reported in the news last week, the Environment Agency in England said it identified the area as a high-risk illegal waste site after becoming aware of it in July and issued a cease-and-desist order. The agency obtained a court order last month to shut down the area after learning about the continued dumping, which is now being investigated as a crime.

When the dumping began is unclear, but satellite footage obtained by Thames21 showed verdant fields in April 2024 and what appeared to be a whiteish streak of the garbage between two rows of trees in July this year. Weeks before the public became aware of the dump alongside the A34 highway near the village of Kidlington, the government came under fire from a Parliamentary committee for being slow to act on a problem the agency said costs England’s economy 1 billion pounds (USD 1.3 billion) annually.

Enough garbage is illegally dumped each year to fill the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium 35 times, the Environment and Climate Change Committee in the House of Lords said in a recent report. The committee urged the government to get tough on the organised crime groups suspected to be behind the problem.