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The U.K.\u2019s Environment Agency calls waste crime \u2014 where instead of delivering recycling or rubbish for proper disposal, companies simply dump it in the countryside \u2014 \u201cthe new narcotics\u201d because it\u2019s so easy to make money illegally. It\u2019s estimated that one in every five U.K. waste companies operates in this manner ('fly-tipping'), and the government seems powerless to stop it: it\u2019s so easy to be registered as one of the government\u2019s recommended waste haulers that even a dog can do it \u2014 and at least one has, as this episode shares.

In part 2 of our new investigative podcast series, the team also speaks with a lawyer who describes her year-long campaign to get the government to deal with a single illegal dump site, but they fail to act before it catches fire, in an emblematic 'trash fire' for this whole issue. They also speak with a former official at Interpol who shares that his agency also lacks the resources to tackle the problem.

In a three-part, \u201ctrue eco-crime\u201d series for Mongabay\u2019s podcast, our hosts trace England\u2019s towering illegal waste problem: investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor\xa0and\xa0Dan Ashby follow this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside and as far away as Poland.

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This episode is "The Jungle" and is part two of the podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.

Banner image: The U.K.\u2019s recyclables, plastic packaging and waste soils the countryside across the country and as far away as Turkey (pictured). Image courtesy of Caner Ozkan via Greenpeace Media Library.

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