New waste legislation offers optimism for fly-tipping prevention
Latest government announcement abolishes charges for DIY waste within some local councils to encourage fewer cases of illegal fly-tipping and littering
In a potential boost to tackle rural fly-tipping, the UK Government has announced that fees charged by some local authorities for disposing of DIY waste will be abolished.
Around a third of local authorities still charge to deposit household DIY waste at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs), so the changes will mean councils treat DIY waste the same as household items. This welcome news potentially saves households up to £10 per individual item, promotes a more responsible manner of waste disposal, and encouragingly for rural areas, is likely to dissuade public fly-tipping.
While hundreds of thousands of fly-tipping offences on private land continue to go unrecorded, the latest government announcement is a positive sign that the damaging consequences of fly-tipping for members and other countryside users are being taken into account.
CLA Director of External Affairs, Jonathan Roberts said: “The UK Government is now getting serious about fly-tipping, and we warmly welcome this announcement. Fundamentally, making it cheaper and easier for people to get rid of their waste means they will be less likely to dump it illegally.
We continue to work with government to find new ways of reducing fly-tipping, which continues to not only act as a blight on our landscape, but as a serious threat to nature and our members’ businesses
It’s thought that two-thirds of farmers and landowners suffer from fly-tipping instances every year, with some targeted multiple times a month. The CLA has devised a five-point action plan to combine the efforts of farmers, landowners, and rural communities with the government to eradicate this crime.