This week we joined our amigos at @riveractionuk.bsky.social & @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social to deliver a petition to Emma Hardy. 70,000 people calling for a ban on toxic sewage sludge being spread on farmland, putting microplastics, pharmaceuticals and PFAS directly into food crops and the environment.

The inevitable consequences of the unregulated spreading of toxic sewage sludge on UK farms. @fightingdirty.bsky.social

Horrifying > "waste legally dumped at Jameson Road landfill by AGC Chemicals until 2014 contained the potentially carcinogenic “forever chemical” perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)" www.theguardian.com/environment/... As always, huge hat tip to @watershed-i.bsky.social

At the heart of this story is this quote: "These chemicals aren’t regulated for..." Consider this a memo to Defra. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

NEW! Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across Europe www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our pathway, without policy change, is to a warmer world where we use more and more plastic. This spells double trouble. www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...

"could cause more deaths than jobs" 😲

Listen to our Director @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on this week's @boldpolitics.bsky.social 👇

But, since then, emails seen by @fightingdirty.bsky.social @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @georgiaes.bsky.social reveal the firm admitting to the EA that PFOA is produced as a by-product of making another PFAS at the plant. As reported by @pippaneill.bsky.social 3 www.endsreport.com/article/1932...

Unpublished documents, shared exclusively with ENDS' by @fightingdirty.bsky.social, showed that the Environment Agency is allowing the factory to produce products containing PFOA - and release it to the air - despite it being globally banned. Read more about the investigation here ⬇️

Is your supermarket using the Red Tractor to reassure its customers? 🏷️ 👀 We're helping @riveractionuk.bsky.social to expose the muck behind the mark - and it stinks! Tell your supermarket to call out Red Tractor & enforce real standards: 👉 upyourstandards.riveractionuk.com?utm_source=I...

Brexit promised us higher environmental standards. Since Brexit though, the UK has often failed to meet the minimum standards set by the EU. Latest evidence shows the UK doubling exports of plastic waste to non-OCED countries while the EU has banned it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Today is the first day we were meant to see 'enhanced verification' of tyres shipped from the UK to India. Typically, we would see 40 or so a day. Today, we saw ... 0! Our Founder has more >>> www.linkedin.com/posts/georgi...

THIS IS SHOCKING! 😳 See those white and blue pieces? That’s plastic.... In sewage sludge that is being spread on our farmland and often ending up in our rivers. 💩😱 🛑 THIS NEEDS TO STOP 🛑 Add your name to the petition - act.gp/4nHfsAc 📸 Credit: Fighting Dirty #SewageSludge #ToxicSludge

AGC Chemicals, near Blackpool, is still producing products containing the globally banned chemical PFOA, and emitting this to the air For Georgia Elliot-Smith, of @fightingdirty.bsky.social, this issue is black and white "There should be no discussion here” www.endsreport.com/article/1932...

They've been warned ... "Fighting Dirty to renew legal action if EA tyre reforms fail" www.mrw.co.uk/news/fightin... This is only possible, though, through donations (we are volunteer-run and not for profit) - monthly donations help fund our research between cases fightingdirty.org/donate/

Now information acquired by @fightingdirty.bsky.social + shared with @pippaneill.bsky.social reveals AGC may have been aware of PFAS contamination around the site for decades before reporting by Watershed brought this pollution to light. 3/4 www.endsreport.com/article/1932...

A must read thead ...

NEW (and shocking): Our FOI request shows AGC Chemicals Europe, which is located near Blackpool, is still producing products containing PFOA and is releasing it to the air. www.endsreport.com/article/1932...

Our Founder, @georgiaes.bsky.social "The fate of toxic liquids oozing out of old landfill sites is an enormous dirty secret between landfill owners, the EA, and water companies.” in today's Guardian >>> www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A massive, dangerous and disgusting scandal, of which far too few people are yet aware. At @fightingdirty.bsky.social we'll keep pushing to stop it. Congrats to @rachelsalvidge.bsky.social for continuing to shine the light: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"many councils, including Caerphilly, have not updated their inspection strategies for potentially contaminated land on average since 2014" www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The plastics industry - those who make money from producing and distributing plastics - should never have been in the room to discuss a treaty that needed to limit and reduce the amount of plastic produced. Good on @greenpeace.org for calling this out. www.greenpeace.org/southeastasi...

For campaign groups like @fightingdirty.bsky.social @fidrango.bsky.social @wclnews.bsky.social & the many people in the EA who have been calling for a review of biosolid use for years, these represent significant moves in the right direction. 4/7 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"17 sites recorded elevated levels, in some cases thousands of times higher than proposed safe limits, as experts warn of potential risk to drinking water" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

ICYMI :)

"The true price is incalculable" Our Director @georgemonbiot.bsky.social rightly raising the alarm www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

ICYMI - we're delighted to report a major campaign victory as Government announces plan to regulate ‘toxic’ sewage sludge fightingdirty.org/press-releas...

The environmental campaign group, Fighting Dirty, is celebrating a "landmark victory" following the release of the Independent Water Commission Report. It recommends regulating sewage sludge - poured onto farmland and then polluting waterways - under the Environmental Permitting Regime (EPR)

Great news. At @fightingdirty.bsky.social we lost our court case on sewage sludge spreading, but now we're winning by other means. It's crazy that it took so long, but shows that persistence pays. Please support FD if you can. Thanks. fightingdirty.org/press-releas...

This is a huge victory 🎉 only made possible thanks to all of you who have supported our work. Legal cases cost money. If you can support our work please do fightingdirty.org/donate/ Needless to say we will be keeping an eye on this and making sure it is implemented in a timely way.

UPDATE: The Environment Agency has told us that their review of their regulatory position for waste tyre exports (more on this here fightingdirty.org/major-victor...) will now be published on the 31st July - more than a month after they were originally aiming to. Watch this space.

If you're not already following our amigos at @fidrango.bsky.social do now. They do incredibly important work.

Inaction isn't an option 👇 “Every day of inaction locks in decades of pollution and environmental harm … we’re asking the UK government to turn off the tap of these persistent forever chemicals.” @fidrango.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As part of our ongoing #Dieselgate campaign, we attended the Pan-NOx Emissions Group Litigation hearing at the High Court this week. This is the next stage in our campaign to push for public transparency and #OpenJustice in the upcoming £6 billion Dieselgate trial, scheduled for October.

Huge hat tip to our friends at @riveractionuk.bsky.social and Hugh for illustrating the issues here so clearly. If you're not already following @riveractionuk.bsky.social do now - they're campaign on #sewagesludge is taking our concerns on the subject to the heart of government!

Thank you and 👋 to all our new followers (we're just 14 short of hitting 11,000). If you want to find out more about our work, have a read here fightingdirty.org/about-us/

The more we discover, the worse it gets. Now we learn the water companies wrote the guidance ensuring sewage sludge is not tested for the vast majority of contaminants before being spread on farmland. They gave themselves a free licence to dump hazardous waste. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

TAKE ACTION: Sign the @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social/ @riveractionuk.bsky.social petition now to demand urgent action to stop the spread of toxic sewage sludge - and make water companies pay to clean up their mess. action.greenpeace.org.uk/toxic-sewage...

Great investigation by @rachelsalvidge.bsky.social At @fightingdirty.bsky.social we sued the government over this and lost over a frankly bizarre set of legal distinctions. But we will keep coming at this issue until the mass contamination of farmland ends. Watch this space: fightingdirty.org

“Water company executives ... receive enormous payouts while environmental and health hazards are ignored ... this suggests a deliberate pay-to-pollute arrangement. It’s sickening that water companies struck a deal with Ofwat allowing them to pass clean-up costs to consumers." @georgiaes.bsky.social

Last year, lawyers representing @fightingdirty.bsky.social took the EA to court over whether its decision to remove a deadline for reforming sludge regulations was unlawful. The group lost its case - but via FOI I got hold of the docs submitted by the EA. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Find out more about our work and how you can support. Together, we are Fighting Dirty. fightingdirty.org

At @fightingdirty.bsky.social, we sued over this issue, and lost on the grounds that the Environment Agency couldn't be in breach because the government had issued no direction. An absurdity, which means that poisons continue to be spread on farmland every day. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our Co-Founder @georgemonbiot.bsky.social isn't holding back: “Farmers are being deceived by the water companies … they’re being misled, and this could have very serious implications for their future livelihood, that their land could become unusable..." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"all of us, but particularly our children, are being exposed to microplastics and nanoplastics ... We’re being exposed to Pfas, we’re being exposed to pesticides. And the level of all of these things is mounting up all of the time.” @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Plastic nurdles may sound harmless - but, when a spill of nurdles occurs, as in the X-Press Pearl disaster, or off the coast of East Yorkshire this year, these tiny pieces of plastic can absorb other pollutants, & are eaten by sea creatures who cannot digest them, as Dr Megson explains here:

"Lime is used in waste water treatment for sludge treatment" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We forced a govt investigation into illegal waste tyre export trade, and got ministers to finally pay attention to toxic sewage sludge entering our food. But we can't do this without YOU! Please share, subscribe, or buy us a virtual coffee so we can keep changing the law to make polluters pay! 🙏❤️🌏

We crowdfund our cases. Without your support, we can't take legal action. But that's only for the cases that end up in court. Between these cases, we need to pay for research, legal advice and outreach work. Can you support this work through a monthly donation? fightingdirty.org/donate/