Saturday, 6 September 2008
No, small items, e.g. crisp packets, sweet wrappers and cigarette ends, thrown away by individuals on public or private land are usually referred to as littering rather than fly-tipping.
It is still a form of anti-social behaviour and contravenes Sections 87 and 88 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. If individuals are seen dropping litter they can be served with a Fixed Penalty of £75.00
Fly-tipping can blight communities, it can create a snowball effect and attract more and more waste. Uncontrolled waste can be hazardous to the public and in some cases may be a serious health and safety risk. Fly-tipped waste can spoil the environment by:
Clearing up fly-tipped rubbish increases costs for the taxpayer, diverts resources from other services and can discourage new investment in the area.
Yes, fly-tipping is illegal. If convicted fly-tippers could be fined up to £20,000 and/or receive a six month imprisonment sentence. These enforcement thresholds are likely to increase in the near future as proposed changes to Government legislation will take a tougher stance against environmental crime.
Waste in the UK is controlled by a licence which imposes a duty to ensure all waste is disposed of in a conventional and safe manner. Waste should only be deposited, retrieved or transported by registered waste carriers.
There are several pieces of legislation relating to fly-tipping in England the main ones are:
The majority of people who fly-tip do this to avoid paying Landfill Tax charges associated with rubbish. This tax is imposed on all waste to cover the cost of it being processed or disposed of in the safest manner.
Costs for household waste disposed of in the dustbin or wheelie bin or taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre are covered through the payment of Council Tax.
Generally fly-tippers are opportunists who will deposit their waste at any location where they will not be seen easily. Common places are rural lanes, lay-bys, wooded areas or entrances to commercial premises.
Based on information recorded by Doncaster Council over the last twelve months the most common types of fly-tipped waste in order of largest amount of waste are:
Historically a large amount of fly-tipped waste has been made up of single items e.g. a bin liner or carrier bag, a car boot load or a transit van load.
Statistics show that trends are now changing and large amounts of waste are being discarded in one incident. This is mainly due to the potential cost savings by perpetrators and the use of larger vehicles up to 20 tonnes.
In some cases of organised environmental crime in excess of 100 tonnes, equivalent to £3800.00 of waste can be deposited in a remote spot over a period of a few days by one or more vehicle carrying waste from a specific site or location.
These incidents are well planned and coordinated by the beneficiaries and you can imagine that the cost savings for such action could be seen as both tempting and lucrative.
Doncaster Customer Service Team has been running an anti-fly tipping campaign since April 2004. The key aims of the campaign are:
To enable Customer Services to achieve these aims several initiatives have been launched and dedicated resource has been committed to the fly-tipping campaign.
Proactive Measures to reduce fly-tipping include:
and FLAG will clear it.
Report it to us:
Customer Services Online Report Form
If you would like any unsightly flyposting removed from Council property, private property or street furniture please contact us using the details found at the top of this web page.
Alternatively, you can send us the details using this online form.
