WARNING: 42% of Welsh Residents at risk of being scammed by fly-tippers

SIGN FLY-TIPPING ACTION WALES’ FREE PLEDGE TO INCREASE AWARENESS OF ‘WASTE DUTY OF CARE’ RESPONSIBILITY IN WALES

FLY-TIPPING Action Wales warns that residents living in Wales are at high risk of being scammed by unregistered waste removal services.

These exploitative individuals will take your hard earned money and make profit from blighting Wales’s countryside and urban spaces with your household rubbish - while putting you at risk of having to pay additional costs in fines.

This stern caution to the Welsh population has been issued by Fly-tipping Action Wales after research shows that 42% of residents in Wales remain unaware that they have a legal responsibility to check for a registered waste carrier when arranging excess rubbish removal from their home.

Residents are reminded that they have a legal duty of care to check that the person or business they use to remove large amounts of rubbish or unwanted items from their home holds an official waste carrier licence.

If a waste enforcement officer traces fly-tipped rubbish back to a resident that did not make these checks, they risk a fine of up to £5,000 and prosecution. Local authorities across Wales can also issue residents with a £300 fixed penalty notice as an alternative to prosecution.

Fly-tipping Action Wales also recommend that people ask where their rubbish is going, request a receipt from the company used to remove the waste and record details of the vehicle involved, including the make, model and registration number.

A list of registered waste carriers, which should be searched to make these checks, is available on the

Natural Resources Wales website: naturalresources.wales/ checkwaste.

The public can also contact Natural Resources Wales via phone on 0300 065 3000.

Approximately 33,000 fly-tipping incidents are recorded in Wales each year, which is the equivalent to 90 incidents a day, or four offences every hour. Of these incidents, more than 70% contain household rubbish.

Not only will completing these vital checks protect you from being scammed and receiving unwanted fines, but more importantly, it will help to protect Wales’s natural environment, local communities and wildlife against the detrimental impacts of fly-tipping.

To encourage Wales’s residents to learn more about their household waste duty of care responsibility, Fly-tipping Action Wales is inviting members of the public to sign a free pledge on their website.

It’s all part of their ‘It’s Your Duty To Care’ campaign, which aims to increase awareness around householder Waste Duty of Care responsibility in Wales.

Each signature will represent a promise to Wales to help protect its natural environment against fly-tipping - by always checking for a registered waste carrier.

Fly-tipping Action Wales also encourages people to reduce the amount of excess waste that they have to dispose of by using services such as Freecycle, donating suitable items to local charities and looking into the free and paid rubbish removal services that your Local Authority has available.

To sign Fly-tipping Action Wales’s It’s Your Duty To Care pledge, please visit www.flytippingactionwales.org/ en/duty-care-pledge

Fly-tipping is a serious crime. It causes considerable damage to the environment, the economy and local communities - with the consequences being up to a £50,000 fine or 12 months imprisonment for the offender if prosecuted at a Magistrate’s Court.

For more information on ways to manage your waste safely, legally and responsibly, please visit flytippingactionwales.org, follow @FtAW on Twitter or search @FtAWales Facebook.