Fly-Tipping On The Rise

Across the UK, fly-tipping is getting worse. Apparently, councils are spending £67m to clean up the public land and are prosecuting anyone they catch.

source: bbc.co.uk

What is fly-tipping?

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste. It is deposited onto a site where the land is without a license to accept waste. It can be anything from a bin bag, to tires, to mattresses. It’s been reported that items such as televisions and sofas are being left on roads.

What actions are in place?

Councils across England now have the power to fine people up to £400 for the ‘smaller’ offences, such as the fly-tipping of bin bags. Of course, this is dependent on evidence. Moreover, for larger offences, one can be fined up to £50,000 or serve up to five years imprisonment.

There has been a new force in place which includes the attempt to name and shame said litterers and fly-tippers. Although it may sound ideal to publically announce the offenders to humiliate them out of offending again and scaremonger others not follow suit, the issue of cost to keep a constant eye on them is high. There’s been ideas of capturing people based on DNA testing, but this could cost just as much as we spend on clean-ups.

What does fly-tipping mean for us?

As much as we are being rightly threatened with fines and prison sentences, littering and fly-tipping remains on the rise. The result of this has impacted taxpayers into forking out £700m-£850m, per year, just for tidying up the affected areas.

Where gets hit the most?

Well, according the statistics, the boroughs of London are responsible for seven of the ten worse affected areas for litter and fly-tipping. The worse area of all is Newham with a massive 216,000 cases in 2014-15.

What can you do?

If you see fly-tippers or any other waste related crime, it can be reported on the official Government website. According to them, here are the things you should be looking out for:

– People running a waste site without a permit;

– Large scale illegal dumping;

– Incorrectly labelled waste; and

– Illegally exportation of waste.

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