Salford fly tipping rates reach record high to top all other Greater Manchester boroughs
[Article written for publishing in April 2026}
Fly tipping in Salford has reached a record high in the past year with the rates of incidents becoming the highest of all Greater Manchester boroughs.
Between 2024 and 2025, there were 7610 reported incidents of fly tipping across Salford, a 14.6% increase on the previous year.
Out of these 7610, over 80% of the waste being dumped was black bags and other household waste.
Darren Keighley, 43, lives in a terraced house in the Weaste area of Salford with a gated alleyway behind the house. He has lived there most of his life, having bought it from his parents before getting married.
In the past five to ten years, other properties on the street have become rentals and student houses, and, along with this, fly tipping has increased in the area. Darren attributes this to the new residents “not really caring about the property”.
There have been many instances of rubbish, food cartons, mattresses, and old furniture being dumped beside the bins in the alleyway, resulting in Darren having mice entering his house and rats in his back garden.
Having made complaints to the council over the past couple of years, his alleyway was eventually cleaned.
Darren said: “The council actually came out and cleaned the alleyway, which was overgrown with weeds, a week or so ago.
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“My wife took out the bins tonight and already there are mattresses and rubbish bags dumped next to the communal bins.”
Salix Homes, a social housing provider in Salford, own land on Warren Street in the Kersal area of Salford, which has become a hot spot for fly tipping, despite consistent action from the company.
Gemma Parlby, Executive Director of Customer and Landlord Service at Salix Homes, said: “Our Environmental Team attends the site on a fortnightly basis, and on each visit typically remove the equivalent of two van loads of waste.
“In the past year alone, we have cleared 24 tonnes of fly-tipping waste from the site, at a cost of over £5,000 in tipping fees.
“Fly tipping is a significant issue across Salford and places a huge strain on public services, including social housing providers like ourselves. It is a crime that blights communities and diverts public money and resources away from other things — money that could be better spent improving homes and supporting communities.”
The rate of fly tipping in Salford has reached such an extreme that it is now the highest in Greater Manchester, exceeding that of Manchester itself.
This is a change from the year before in which Salford had the third highest rate of fly tipping out of the ten boroughs, behind Manchester and Bolton.
Whilst every Greater Manchester borough showed an increase in the rates of fly tipping between 2023–2024 and 2024–2025, Salford’s figures showed a greater increase than most other boroughs.
Salford City Council were contacted for response on the issue but did not provide a reply.
