Business waste on Goodge Street left uncollected for weeks

Bags of business waste piled up on a pavement in Fitzrovia were left uncollected for weeks — part of a wider problem of waste management in the neighbourhood.

Six or more Biffa-branded waste bags — which include food waste — had been sitting on the footway on Goodge Street since at least Monday 1 June, when we first took a picture.

However, local people told The Fitzrovia News that the bags had actually been on street for a lot longer — between two and six weeks! But nobody was sure about who put the bags out.

The refuse sacks had been pecked at by herring gulls, pigeons and probably foxes, rats and mice.

Surprisingly, people sitting at a table a few metres away were enjoying food and drink — seemly unbothered by the rancid refuse in front of them. Perhaps it’s all part of Fitzrovia’s edgy vibe?

But why wasn’t any enforcement action taken by Camden Council to get the bags removed?

Fitzrovia is also supposed to benefit from a business improvement district (BID) to add extra muscle to the management of the public realm, including reporting uncollected rubbish.

Why didn’t The Fitzrovia Partnership BID enforcement team get Biffa to come and pick them up?

We don’t know to which business the waste bags belong. To find out we would have to do what Camden’s enforcement officers are supposed to do: open the bags and search for evidence from the contents. That’s not something we are prepared to do, and nor should we do it. Instead we passed the information on to Camden Council to investigate.

Yesterday morning the bags were still there.

But after The Fitzrovia News contacted Biffa, Camden Council, and The Fitzrovia Partnership to say we were doing a news story, the bags were removed the same day by Biffa.

A Biffa spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry for the waste left on the street and the impact this had on the busy area. As soon as the issue was brought to our attention, we acted quickly to arrange collection. We work closely with our customers and civic partners to help keep the streets clean and tidy and are looking into what happened to try and prevent a repeat.”

Andrew Munk, chief executive of The Fitzrovia Partnership, responded to The Fitzrovia News saying:

“Safe and clean streets are one of The Fitzrovia Partnership’s core priorities. We take the cleanliness of our area seriously and have recently increased the frequency of our own cleansing rounds, while investing in additional on-street enforcement capacity so we can respond to issues more quickly.

“We also operate a preferred supplier scheme with First Mile for waste and recycling collection, which helps make it more cost effective for businesses in Fitzrovia to manage their waste responsibly.

“We are working at a strategic level with both Camden and Westminster to improve waste management standards across the area, and we will always escalate issues to the relevant authorities when they come to our attention,” said Munk.

Management of residents waste is also a problem. In October 2024 Camden Council placed 14 on-street storage containers on Goodge Street for bagged household waste to be kept prior to being collected.

“As part of our ongoing investment in our waste and recycling services we are installing these containers across the borough so that residents who live in flats above shops can place their rubbish bags out at any time of day, instead of at a specified time,” said Camden in October 2024.

At the time The Fitzrovia News reported that the scheme was already not working very well.

When we checked last week, every single one of those 14 plastic bins was filled to the brim with stinking litter and food waste, leaving no room inside for residents to place their household refuse bags.

Early on a Sunday morning — before the road sweepers and the Camden Council collection lorry has been — Goodge Street is a terrible sight due to the sheer volume of rubbish that is strewn about, despite the warning signs against fly-tipping and littering.

Most of this is cleaned up by the sweepers but Camden’s bin lorries will not take business waste if it is not in the branded Camden bags.

In 2023 a think tank report highlighted business waste on Goodge Street as one of the most common obstacles to pedestrians.

There are also widespread instances of individuals rummaging through bin bags looking for items of value and discarding rubbish all over the street as they are torn open.

But the main problem is the huge volume of rubbish that is put out too early before collection (or not collected) and the amount of fly-tipping that is going on.

It comes from businesses, and it comes from residents. And it is made all the worse by the amount of short-term letting that is going on in the neighbourhood.

In 2024 Camden Council asked residents and businesses to be more “considerate” with their waste; then later the same year increased the fines for fly-tipping and littering in an effort to address the problem.

Yet according to one resident — who has been unofficially monitoring rubbish on the streets and reporting it with Camden’s app — the problem has been getting worse, not better, despite all the warning notices and initiatives by Camden Council.

Goodge Street is just one of many streets in Fitzrovia that has a rubbish problem. It is probably worse than most streets in the neighbourhood.

The local rubbish monitor we spoke to said Fitzrovia is “worse than anywhere else in Camden”.

Cllr James Slater, cabinet member for planning and a sustainable Camden, told The Fitzovia News:

“It is important that we work together with residents and businesses to make sure the streets of Fitzrovia are safe and clean.

“At Camden Council, we will continue daily collections, regular jet-washing and street sweeping with our partner Veolia — and commit to reviewing the size and collection frequency of the containers on Goodge Street to see how we can further improve street cleanliness in the area.

“For residents, this means taking care to ensure the correct services are being used to dispose of waste and recycling, and reporting environmental issues such as flytipping via the LoveCleanStreets app or website — and for businesses this means placing rubbish bags only shortly before collections.”

Camden Council’s website states that businesses must ensure their recycling and waste is collected, transported and disposed of by a licensed waste carrier — either by Camden or a private provider. This is a legal requirement under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Residents and businesses can find out about rubbish and recycling from Camden Council’s webpage.

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