‘Mountain of trash’: how Gibraltar was almost buried under post-Brexit rubbish pile

The Rock of Gibraltar. The last of the excess waste was cleared just before Gibraltar was hit by a terrific storm. Photograph: Artur Bogacki/Alamy

Set against the lapping waters of the western Mediterranean, the mounds of half-chewed apples, takeout containers and dirty nappies began accumulating in January. Fed by a continuous convoy of trucks hauling rubbish from across Gibraltar, the pile of waste soon swelled to some 6,000 tonnes.

“It was a mountain of trash,” said Antonio Muñoz of the ecologist group Verdemar-Ecologistas en Acción. “All sorts of rubbish, all mixed together.”