Poop Idle: The top 20 places in Britain for toxic animal waste revealed

Just 20 areas of Britain produce over 15,000 tonnes of waste from intensive livestock units per day, as revealed by Sustain today. North Yorkshire has topped the ‘Poop Idle’ league table, in which intensive chicken, pig and dairy units produce the equivalent of more than 85 tonnes of excreta every hour. Norfolk, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire and Suffolk all produce more than 50 tonnes of excreta per hour.  

Waste from intensive livestock units contains a 'chemical cocktail' of pollutants including nitrates, phosphates, and antibiotic resistant bacteria. In many places, this is spread on soil in volumes too large to be absorbed, causing pollutants to wash into rivers and create algal blooms that choke wildlife. 

In England ‘agriculture and rural land management’ is the most common reason for water bodies not reaching ‘Good Ecological Status’. Soils in every region in England are in nitrogen surplus and phosphate – which is present in animal manure and fertilisers - accounts for more water bodies failing to achieve good ecological status than any other water quality pressure. 

The large agri-businesses that collectively own and profit from a large proportion of intensive livestock units in the UK have seen increased revenue and paid generous bonuses to company directors while every river in the UK is polluted and only 14% are in good ecological health. 

The Poop Idle league table 

Name of Council	Total excreta tonnes/per hour
North Yorkshire	85
Norfolk	78
Shropshire	65
Herefordshire	64
Lincolnshire	56
Suffolk	55
East Riding of Yorkshire	47
Somerset	31
Devon	20
Gloucestershire	19
Lancashire	18
West Yorkshire	18
Dorset	17
Oxfordshire	16
Cumbria	16
Staffordshire	16
Wiltshire	15
Powys	13
Lothian	12
Cheshire	12

 

Sustain are calling for action on intensive livestock units to help recover our rivers. Sam Hayward, Food for the Planet campaign officer said:

"Intensive livestock units are a disaster for our rivers, our rural communities, and the climate. We are urging the government to properly protect our precious habitats, including rivers. Local councils can help make sure they don’t top this grim league table by putting in place planning policy to prevent the proliferation of the most polluting types of intensive livestock units and we encourage them to join Planning for the Planet."

Methodology: To estimate excreta per day per farmed animal, we calculated an average figure for excreta per day over an animal's lifetime. To produce regional excreta figures, we multiplied average excreta per day per farmed animal with regional factory farm population data drawn from Compassion in World Farming data from 2017. To produce national excreta figures, we estimated national factory farm livestock populations from UK-wide livestock data and then multiplied this with average excreta per day per farmed animal. 

 

Name of Council	Meat chickens excreta tonnes/day	Egg chickens excreta tonnes/day	Pigs excreta tonnes/day	Dairy cows excreta tonnes/day	Total excreta tonnes/day	Total excreta tonnes/per hour
North Yorkshire	618	15	1,300	103	2,037	85
Norfolk	1,101	-	777		1,877	78
Shropshire	1,202	124	136	95	1,557	65
Herefordhire	1,505	11	29		1,545	64
Lincolnshire	1,069	25	247		1,342	56
Suffolk	506	1	824	-	1,331	55
East Riding of Yorkshire	259	32	847	-	1,139	47
Somerset	326	66	228	124	744	31
Devon	154	66	133	128	482	20
Gloucestershire	318	27	63	55	462	19
Lancashire	169	46	68	143	426	18
West Yorkshire	143	-	283	23	425	18
Dorset	54	50	300	96	404	17
Oxfordshire	126		256		383	16
Cumbria	291	-	87	32	377	16
Staffordshire	244	61	71	-	375	16
Wiltshire	201	59	106	9	367	15
Powys	265	6	59	47	324	13
Lothian	257	9	19	-	287	12
Cheshire	191	65	28	147	284	12