City revealed as fly-tipping capital of north Scotland

● Residents report dumped waste in gardens, streets and parks

Aberdeen has been revealed as the flytipping capital of northern Scotland – with more than 20 reports a day from residents complaining of waste dumped in their gardens, streets and parks.

Over a period of just six months, council staff in the region were made aware of almost 4,400 incidents – with nearly 4,000 of these in the Granite City alone.

The local authorities have been left to tidy up all manner of items, ranging from bin bags and hedge clippings through to baths, sofas and kitchen appliances.

The incidents in Aberdeen comprised 85% of all fly-tipping complaints made in the north and average out at 20.35 reports per day.

In comparison, Aberdeenshire ranked second in the table with 399 reports, while Highland Council received only 79 complaints, despite all three council areas having a similar number of households. At the other end of the scale, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles combined had just 23 incidents reported over the six months – a tiny fraction of Aberdeen’s total.

It is estimated that flytipping costs Scotland’s councils around £9 million per year, as well as causing environmental damage and potentially even health hazards to locals.

Questions have been raised as to how Aberdeen has ended up with close to 10 times the number of fly-tipping reports as Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.

Sam Gardner, acting director at environmental charity WWF Scotland, said the figures were “deeply saddening”.

“Much of the material discarded illegally will include plastic, which is a pressing problem for our environment and must be tackled,” he said.

“It not only looks awful, blighting our countryside, but is a danger to our precious wildlife, threatening to kill anything that eats it or gets trapped in bags of rubbish.”

Convener of Aberdeen City Council’s operational delivery committee, John Wheeler, said urban areas are more likely to have waste dumped than rural locations and in more visible locations – making them difficult to compare.

He added: “In Aberdeen, we actively encourage members of the public to report fly-tipping and have successfully introduced an online tool to make that easier and quicker.”

When each council receives a fly-tipping complaint, the exact location must be logged in order to tell workers where to collect the items.

The Press and Journal has used reports to create an accurate and interactive map detailing every single instance in the region.

To see the fly-tipping incidents logged near you, visit pressandjournal.co.uk.