We are all extremely familiar with the term ‘fly tipping’ and very aware that it is illegal. In just 2018/19 alone, over 1,000,000 million cases of fly tipping were reported to local councils across the UK. This was astonishingly an 8% increase on the previous year, and is so common it is happening tens of thousands of times a day.
Over a third of these cases are household waste, which has recently been connected to the popularity of ‘man with a van’ advertisements on Facebook marketplace, with cheap offers to remove household goods which often result in the waste being dumped in ditches and on quiet public highways.
These ‘man with a van’ offers on social media are believed to be one of the main causes of the increase in fly tipping across the UK, as people see the opportunity to make a quick buck whilst the owner of the waste has unknowingly had their unwanted belongings fly tipped.
It is becoming more common for homeowners to be fined and given a criminal records after using unlicensed service providers who dump the waste down nearby country lanes. This is something that can happen to anybody who doesn’t make sure that they use a fully insured and licensed waste removal company like Green Transit and should always look into who they are hiring to remove waste from their home and garden. Locally, powers have recently been acquired allowing councils to directly fine homeowners breaching their duty of care regarding legal waste disposal.
If you are caught fly tipping you can be fined up to £50,000 or even sent to prison for up to five years if a magistrates court convicts you. Being found guilty of fly tipping can also see you face charges on top of your fine, to cover legal costs and compensation, with some previous cases exceeding £90,000 in charges on top of fines.
The frustrating part of fly tipping is that a lot of the waste dumped can be recycled if it is managed properly in the first place. However, one of the biggest problems with fly tipping comes from the toxic waste that is fly tipped which has a devastating impact on the environment and wildlife around it, and can also be extremely harmful to humans.
The best way for us to prevent fly tipping is to come together to offer better options to dispose of waste and that is why Green Transit is committed to offering waste disposal and management solutions that are affordable and efficient to use.