Fly-tipping is an increasing issue throughout the UK. Between 2019-2020 alone, local authorities up and down the country dealt with nearly a million fly-tipping incidents. Of those, over 65% of the dumped waste was made up of household waste that could easily have been recycled or collected from your front door.
Impacting valuable resources and having negative repercussions on the environment, fly-tipping is becoming more than your local authorities problem.
So, what can you do to help prevent fly-tipping in your local area? Let’s find out!
Keep your area well lit
Unsurprisingly, like most subtler crimes, most fly-tipping is done under cover of darkness. Perpetrators feel like they are less likely to get caught if there’s no way to see them. So, make it harder for them.
Everything from security lights to cutting back overgrown foliage will help make visibility better. Regardless of if you are trying to add protection to your residence, office or building site, keeping your area well lit will put off the fly-tippers in the first instance.
If anyone happens to be wandering around your area or you notice a fly-tipper, you’ll have more chance reading vehicle reg plates and spot key features if your site is well lit. That way, the police have more information to go on, and the perpetrators are more likely to be stopped in their tracks!
Leave little room for excuses
If you’ve been letting some of your household or garden waste build up outside your home, yard or office, there’s a chance a fly-tipper will beeline for your area as there is already rubbish there! Especially if larger, more bulky items are involved, such as mattresses, fridges and broken lawnmowers.
One of the easiest ways to manage your own waste is to hire in the professionals. Your local rubbish removals company are not only the experts in their field, but they have all the resources required to remove and dispose of waste responsibly.
What’s more, if you’re struggling to stay on top of your rubbish, you can schedule a regular collection with your local team. That way, you are reducing the risk of fly-tipping outside your home, and you are keeping your property safe as well.
Consider installing CCTV
If fly-tipping is particularly bad in your area, you may want to consider installing CCTV. That way, you can monitor and record anything suspicious and potentially catch any wrongdoers in the act.
Many security cameras are fitted with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) as well. They are equipped with trackers that can identify targetted fly-tipping areas.
On average, councils are spending £67m to clear up public land and prosecute anyone they catch. More minor offences can land you a £400 fine, but it all depends on the evidence. Having a CCTV system in place will ensure added safety and prevention to your premises.
Get the kids involved
Sometimes the best approach is the friendly approach, and getting the kids involved might just be the answer. The best example of this was carried out in the Forest of Dean in 2016. Together, six primary schools and a secondary school worked alongside the charity, Hubbub to install and create the “Communitrees” project.
Fifty models of faces designed and made by the children were attached to trees at 16 sites throughout the area. The concept behind the initiative was to make would-be litterers and dumpers think again, as they were “watched” by the tree’s faces.
According to Hubbub, “Litter monitoring around the Communitree installations indicated a 30% reduction in local litter levels, and 82% of people polled would like to see similar projects in the future.” That’s a sure sign of success if you ask us!
The naming and shaming approach
No one likes to have their name put under fire, and unsurprisingly, neither do fly-tippers! In answer to the surge in fly-tipping (an 84% rise since 2014), Croydon Council adopted the name and shame approach to tackling the problem.
Perpetrators soon were put off when the council initiated on the spot fines for anyone caught littering. 24-year-old Natalie McDermoth was handed a £420 penalty for dropping a cigarette butt on the floor. In response, she refused to pay the initial £80 on the spot fine and was taken to court. The punishment didn’t end there. Alongside more than 100 other perpetrators, McDermoth earned her place on the local authority’s “hall of shame.”
How would you respond in this situation? Do you think McDermoth’s chase was handled fairly? She certainly didn’t!
Embrace your neighbourhood watch
One of the best ways to tackle fly-tipping is to keep an out for suspicious activity. Whether you embrace your local neighbourhood watch or organise a patrol around your office or workspace, people are less likely to fly-tip in your area if they feel like they’ll get caught.
What’s more, just having a regular “watchful” presence in targeted areas will ensure that the culprits are identified and prevented from repeating their offence. The more evidence you can collate, the better chances of long term prevention.
Go paperless
Reducing your paper usage will quickly have a positive impact on the amount of litter you are producing. Even if you aren’t purposefully fly-tipping, think of all those times you’ve seen a receipt or a paper cup blowing in the wind!
Every year, UK retailers hand out over 11 billion paper receipts. That’s before you think about all the scratch cards, travel tickets and gum wrappers littering your street.
More and more businesses are opting for a paperless system, where they e-mail you your receipt rather than hand you one. Then there are all the cafes up and down the country that offer incentives for using your re-usable cup instead of one of their paper ones.
Embracing contactless payments will also further ensure you are doing your part to keep the streets clear of paper litter.
Keeping your streets, land and living spaces clear of litter is your first step to keeping the fly-tippers at bay. Whether you adopt contactless payments or hire a professional rubbish removals company like us to manage your waste, you can do your part too.