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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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Fly-tipping drops by 9.3%
Fly-tipping across England has dropped by 9.3% in the last year, new statistics published by Defra today show.
- In 2008-09 there were 1.16 million fly-tipping incidents dealt with by local authorities. A 9.3% decrease from the 1.28 million reported in 2007-08;
- 50% of all fly-tips occurred on highways;
- The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in this period was £54.9million; and
- Local authorities increased their enforcement actions in 2008-09 by 3.9% to over 520,000, this includes 2,000 prosecutions.
Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said:
“Fly-tipping is unacceptable and a stain on our environment, which costs local authorities in England tens of millions of pounds each year that could be spent on local services. All waste can and should be disposed of responsibly.
“I am pleased to see a reduction of over 9% in incidents, but 1.16 million is still too many. It affects our lives wherever we live, and Local Authorities, Government and people need to play their part in stopping it.”
Defra will continue to work with the Environment Agency and Local Authorities to prevent illegal waste activity through a combination of education, prevention and enforcement.
Measures the Government are taking to reduce fly-tipping include: reviewing legislation to make it easier for businesses to dispose of their waste correctly; campaigns to explain to businesses how they can dispose of their waste responsibility; working with local authorities to develop anti-flytipping strategies; and future awareness raising campaigns on changing the behaviour of fly-tippers.
Notes to editors
- the full fly-tipping statistics can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/local/flytipping/flycapture-data.htm
2. Fly-tipping is the term used to describe waste illegally deposited on land (section 33 of the Environment Protection Act 1990).
3. The Defra/Environment Agency Flycapture database currently only records incidents ‘dealt with’ by local authorities and the Environment Agency. It does not include fly-tipping that is dealt with by private landowners. The Environment Agency is currently working on a pilot scheme with some major landowner organisations to record the number of incidents occurring on private land in order to understand the full extent of this problem.
4. The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in 2008/09 was £54.9 million, a fall of almost 14% from 07/08. Some authorities build the cost of clearing fly-tipped waste into their waste framework contracts so this does not always result in a direct cost to the taxpayer.
5. Local authorities carried out 1,992 prosecutions in 2008-09, of which 97.5% achieved a successful outcome, authorities also imposed several other enforcement activities short of prosecution in response to fly-tipping incidents in this time ranging from warning letters and fixed penalty notices to statutory notices to clear the waste and injunctions.
6. The number of inspections carried out by local authorities to check for compliance with the waste duty of care has increased from 42,000 in 2007-08 to 54,000 in 2008-09. This is a key tool for authorities to ensure that waste is being properly managed in order to prevent fly-tipping from occurring.
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