Recycling confusion blamed for fly-tipping ‘epidemic’

FLY-TIPPING has reached a 10-year high in England, as campaigners warn that the problem may have been fuelled by confusion over complex waste disposal rules.

Councils reported 1,072,000 incidents of illegal dumping in 2018-19, reaching the highest level since 2008-09 after an increase of 8 per cent on the previous year, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Nearly two thirds of cases involved household rubbish, and most waste was left on roads or pavements, suggesting that offences were linked to the bin policies of local authorities.

Keep Britain Tidy, the environment charity, said people were increasingly struggling to understand the right bins to use for different types of rubbish and some may have resorted to fly-tipping. It comes after the Local Government Association (LGA) claimed this week that recycling was too complicated, with “unclear” labels resulting in too much reusable waste going to landfills.

Analysis by The Telegraph, as part of this newspaper’s Zero Waste campaign to simplify recycling rules, previously revealed that shoppers face a dizzying array of 58 recycling symbols when they come to dispose of products.

Allison Ogden-newton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Our research in London suggests that many people are overwhelmed by the amount of cardboard and plastic packaging coming into their homes, and this may contribute to the problem as people put out extra bags of waste, alongside their bins, not realising that this is, in reality, fly-tipping.”

She said fly-tipping had reached “epidemic levels” and a national scheme was needed to educate people on the “dangers and costs” of the problem.

The Defra figures showed more than 600,000 of the fly-tipping cases in the past year involved household rubbish, ranging from black bags to house and shed clearances. Almost half of the incidents reported involved the waste being left on a road or pavement. In 33 per cent of cases the amount dumped was equivalent to a small van load.

The alarming statistics suggest the problem is on the rise and close to returning to levels not seen for a decade.

The number of penalty notices has continued to increase, up 11 per cent to 76,000 in the past year. David Renard, environment spokesman for the LGA which represents councils in England, said fly-tipping cost taxpayers more than £57 million a year to clear up.

“The next government needs to ensure councils have the funding needed to investigate incidents and review sentencing guidelines so that fly-tippers are given bigger fines for more serious offences, to help deter incidents,” he said. “We’d urge our residents to report flytipping as soon as possible.”

Defra said it was unable to comment due to purdah rules.