How do we keep the scourge of fly-tipping at bay, post-Christmas? - Jayne Dowle

Now it’s Boxing Day, what are your plans? Are you going to place it all neatly in the outdoor bin, and line up the extra bags ready for responsible recycling? Or chuck it in the back of the car and drive around your local area throwing it out of the window?

I’m sure it’s the former, rather than the latter. However, not everyone is a good citizen. The actions of the selfish few are ruining our lanes, highways and countryside with rubbish.

Being a naturally thrifty sort, I save every single usable gift bag, and have even been known to smooth out gift-wrapping to bestow it with a second life.

Not much goes to waste in our house, and what does goes straight into the bin or is taken hastily to the local ‘civic amenity site’ which is only a five-minute drive away. Living on the edge of the countryside, we’re plagued with rats. If they so much as sniff a discarded turkey carcass they’ll be under the floorboards yet again.

None of that waste, I can safely say, will be going in a hedgerow, a field or left by the side of the road. Of all the perils and annoyances of modern life, illegal dumping of litter and the more serious offence of fly-tipping, when all manner of undesirable items are disposed of by irresponsible criminals with no thought whatsoever for wildlife and the environment, is the one I hate the most.

And sadly, this time of year, when every household creates even more rubbish than usual, and the new replaces the old, is the season to be very irresponsible indeed.

The problem of fly-tipping and general desecration of rural and urban locations alike is getting worse.

According to official government figures, in the year 2020/21, local authorities in England dealt with 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents, an increase of 16 per cent from the 980,000 reported in 2019/20.

The pandemic lockdowns during 2020 obviously wrested a deleterious effect. For much of the spring and summer of 2020, official waste disposal centres were closed or operating under Covid-19 social distancing restrictions. I know this, because I spent hours sitting in queues patiently waiting my turn to be admitted. Meanwhile, those with no scruples simply dumped their rubbish on a grass verge instead.

However, during 2021, restrictions eased. Really, there should be absolutely no excuse for the fact that fly-tipping continued its upward trajectory.

And worryingly, for both 12-month periods, just under two thirds (65 per cent) of fly-tips involved household waste.

In April, former environment minister Jo Churchill announced a range of Government measures intended to combat fly-tipping, with great fanfare. She said: “When it comes to fly-tipping, enough is enough. These appalling incidents cost us £392m a year and it is time to put a stop to them.

“I want to make sure that recycling and the correct disposal of rubbish is free, accessible and easy for householders. No one should be tempted to fly tip or turn to waste criminals and rogue operators.”

The funding, of just £450,000 awarded to certain councils to tackle fly-tipping in the worst-affected locations, was intended to help trial ways of dealing with the dumpers; suggestions included more fixed cover and overt CCTV cameras, rapid deployment cameras with car number plate recognition and online educational initiatives for those fined for existing infringements.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this has been. I must say, in my own part of semi-rural South Yorkshire, where I drive regularly through ancient woodlands three or four times a week, things are looking worse than ever.

All along the road are local council notices warning of the severe punishment for direct fly-tipping.

The problem is that this kind of attitude starts, like so many crimes, with small acts. A child who witnesses their parent fling an empty takeaway carton out of the car in a layby will grow up thinking it’s perfectly acceptable to do so.

Nothing seems to work as a deterrent, not even the threat of prison.

That’s why I say it’s time for a campaign that gets children on the case. Schools would take up the cause with gusto; as any parent who has been shamed by the mini healthy eating police officer at the kitchen table, or chastised for using plastic bottles, would agree. Let’s strike whilst the iron’s hot and the Christmas bin is overflowing.