Fly-tipping is the illegal disposal of household, industrial, commercial or other ‘controlled’ waste. The waste can be liquid or solid; controlled waste includes garden refuse and larger domestic items such as fridges and mattresses. (House of commons Library)
Bar chart showing the rate of Flytipping
Incidents of fly-tipping had shown steady declines from 2007/08 until 2013/14, when there was an increase to 858,000 incidents. Since then, the number of fly-tipping incidents has generally been increasing year-on-year. In 2018/19 there were 1,072,000 incidents reported, which was an increase of 8% from the previous year. Consistent with previous years, the most common place for fly-tipping to occur was on highways (pavements and roads), which accounted for almost half (46%) of total incidents in 2018/19. The number of highway incidents has increased by 6% from 2017/18.
Line Chart of number of Flytipping incidents and their location from 2007 to 2018/19
• Councils emptying bins more often, and accepting larger loads of rubbish.
• Awareness of who to contact if they have large appliances to get rid of.
• More awareness of where the local waste collections are, and how to get to them.
• More awareness of punishment – posters/ leaflets etc. could be put up and sent round to warn people of the harsh penalties they could receive.
• More surveillance to deter and catch offenders.
• Introduce community led projects to help clear large loads of rubbish
• Harsher penalties – rather than just fines, perhaps community service would be a more effective punishment, especially if the fly-tippers are made to clear up rubbish, and can see first-hand the trouble it causes.