England's Environment Agency Turns AI on Waste Crime — Targeting the 73% of Cases Nobody Reports

In an August 2026 update, Environment Agency Chief Regulator Jo Nettleton set out plans to embed AI and machine learning into the agency's Regulatory Compliance Service, shifting from routine time-based inspections to a risk-driven model. The agency's own 2025 National Waste Crime Survey found that only 27% of waste crimes are reported to the regulator, and in 2024, 150 of the 295 waste-sector permits in the lowest three compliance bands were repeat poor performers — more than 90% of the agency's enforcement notices already go to the waste sector.
The machine-learning tools automatically analyse waste returns for anomalies, build compliance profiles to target inspections, optimise assessment scheduling, and cross-reference economic/insolvency data to flag firms at risk of illegal dumping before they fail. A new Operational Waste Intelligence and Analysis Unit will combine this with satellite, drone and financial-crime data in one place. Mandatory digital waste tracking for waste-receiving sites begins rolling out in October 2026, which will feed the AI models with real-time data.
This is a launch-stage programme: the August 2026 announcement describes the AI system's design and the compliance data motivating it, but reports no post-deployment results yet, since the tools and the mandatory data feed are only beginning to roll out.

Read the full analysis: https://envirotecmagazine.com/2026/08/26/environment-agency-to-deploy-ai-to-target-waste-crime-and-non-compliance/