Tougher penalties for littering and fly-tipping

TOUGHER NEW penalties for people caught fly-tipping and littering have come into force.

Scotland spends £78 million a year dealing with the two problems.

Local councils spend almost half this sum on removing litter, while a further £ 9m goes on clearing up fly-tipping.

As the fixed penalty notices for both dropping litter and fly- tipping are increased, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead insisted there is “no excuse” for people to leave their rubbish lying around.

The penalties for both offences were £50, but from today those caught littering could have to pay £80, while the fixed penalty notice for flytipping has been upped to £200.

Failure to pay can result in prosecution, with people facing fines of up to £2,500 for littering and £40,000 for fly-tipping.

Approximately 250 million individual items of litter are cleared up every year, including recyclable items — such as plastic bottles and aluminium cans — with a value of £1.2m.

Mr Lochhead said: “It is easy to do the right thing and put your litter in the bin — there really is no excuse for littering.”

He added: “It’s up to all of us to take responsibility for this problem and I’d encourage everyone in Scotland to take their litter home, recycle it or find a litter bin.”

The increased penalties come ahead of the Scottish Government’s national litter strategy — the first since devolution — later this year.