27.07.15
Fly-tipping levels and costs at a record high
Local authorities are urging retailers to provide ‘take back’ services after spending millions of pounds annually clearing up bulky waste and enforcing against record fly-tipping levels.
Latest figures show that councils had to fork out £20m in half a million enforcement actions against fly-tipping in 2013-14 and spent almost £50m in clear-up costs – a 24% increase from the previous year.
They had to deal with 850,000 fly-tipping incidents, also representing an increase of 20% – likely as a result of people changing homes more frequently and lower prices of household consumer goods. Nearly two-thirds of fly-tipping incidents involved household waste.
Councils are now demanding that manufacturers voluntarily provide services where people can return their old mattresses and furniture when they buy new ones, as well as asking them to contribute to clear-up costs.
Mattresses are particularly problematic as they are “extremely” difficult and expensive to recycle and mostly end up in landfill sites that are “already under severe pressure”.
LGA environment spokesperson, Cllr Pete Box, said: “Mattresses and furniture are some of the most fly-tipped items and in these unprecedented circumstances it is only fair that the manufacturers do more to help.
“Manufacturers should show leadership on this issue and provide more ‘bring back’ services and contribute towards the cost of councils’ clear-ups, on a voluntary basis.”
Cllr Box also blamed fly-tipping for “scarring and disfiguring” the country’s villages and countryside, claiming they are under threat from a “fresh tide of tipping”.
He added: “Fly-tipping is at a record level and increasingly the country’s loveliest beauty spots and villages are being scarred and disfigured. This blight on our most beautiful countryside, towns and cities is costing councils a fortune when they have already seen significant budget reductions.”
Cases of note include mattresses, fridge-freezers, sofas, ironing boards and rotting household furniture like old TVs being dumped in locations across Hampshire and Gloucestershire, as well as in the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey and the historic Railway Village in Swindon.