I meet George regularly when I’m out walking. He’s a lot older than me but he has a purpose and surety of stride. He monitors his patch carefully and when our paths cross, he imparts his knowledge. He is an enthusiastic, passionate advocate of our locality and someone I like to bump for a chat. But recently his mood has changed.
“Those bastards have been at it again, you wouldn’t believe what they’ve left. Fridge freezer, microwave and three bin bags of clothes. Dumped, just dumped.”
George is a smallish man but has large hands. They are forming a circle as he envisions wringing necks. I feel much the same. Fly tipping is becoming an unwanted practice along our country roads and in our area, as I’m sure George would attest, it’s getting worse.
Fly Tipping is the dumping of illegal waste by the roadside. Tipping things out on the fly, in rural spaces away from the eyes of the law. It is costing councils between £40-50 million pounds per year to clean up and it is a serious threat to our wildlife. It also ruins the aesthetic of our fair land. No one wants to see shopping trolleys full of bedsheets, worn down car tyres and broken headboards scattered by the roadside, so why has it become such a problem and what are we to do about it?
As I examine the kinds of things dumped along a stretch of road now notorious for fly tipping, a few things become immediately apparent. Most of the items, (but not all) wouldn’t fit into regular waste disposal wheelie bins. The UK has pretty tight regulations around what can and can’t be removed and certain items will cost you money to have them shifted. Many items however, could just be disposed of at a tip or recycling centre. So whilst there may be a financial imperative, it may also be just plain laziness. Whatever the reason, a culture of fly tipping has developed within a small section of communities across the country.
Fly tippers can be fined up to £400 for illegal roadside dumping but people like George argue the fine should be stiffer.
“They don’t get fined enough, it costs more for it to be cleaned up, they can’t really investigate unless they put cameras on trees in the hot spots.”
Locally, George thinks the culprits are few in number, young lads dropping stuff out of vans before fleeing along narrow country lanes and back onto faster roads back to town. He also thinks it’s done at night. Though my evidence would only be anecdotal, I’d agree as I’ve walked in an undisturbed area one evening and then again the following morning only to find the roadside littered with detritus.
More worryingly, fly tipping is not limited to the roadside, it is becoming evident in our woodlands, urban neighbourhoods and public parks. Hopefully, this will force the issue higher up the agendas of local councils.
My feeling is, that like poachers, fly tippers don’t see anything too bad in what they are doing. They don’t envisage there being any repercussions other than someone else having to clean it up.
The reality is that fly tipping is very bad for the environment. Soils can be contaminated by chemicals found in waste products, and for people who depend on the land for a living, this can be disastrous. Animals too, can be adversely affected by changes to soils, especially the micro organisms without which many food chains would collapse. Similarly, waste dumped in a river or canal can cause blockages, or pollute the water causing huge problems for the wildlife of the area.
Disease transmission is also a very real problem. If the waste contains anything a rodent might eat, fly tipping could lead to infestations of rats or mice. Both are carriers of diseases we could quite happily live without.
It’s a tough one for councils. Budgets are stretched and spending has to be prioritised. In an ideal world all councils would have the resources to tackle this relatively inexpensive problem but it seems that community groups and charity litter picks help remove much of the unwanted waste from our locality. Without being able to identify the culprits, it’s difficult to do anything other than respond to the mess left behind. I’d like to see all those convicted be educated as to the harm fly tipping is doing to the environment as well as pick up the mess they and others have made. I’d like to see a bit more done in PSHE at school to ensure kids understand the environmental impact of fly tipping. I’d also like fines to be increased to cover the clean up costs. As with most environmental issues, there’s a role for all of us.
In the mean time fly tipping goes on and many strange things are dumped on our streets. From a pair of live turtles to a coffin (unoccupied) to a giant bag of cannabis to a World War 2 hand grenade to a 16ft dead python, people are prepared to dump anything.
We have become a throw away generation as we consume at an ever more rapid rate. When it’s cheaper to simply buy a new microwave than have it repaired, what are you going to do? How do we incentivise people to recycle responsibly? Can we encourage people by making the recycling process a bit more transparent so we see what’s happened to our waste? Making this cultural shift towards a cleaner greener future is the battle we must win. Preventing and eradicating fly tipping is a small but important step along the road.
