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Reaching The Tipping Point
Keep Britain Tidy’s action plan for fly-tipping
For many local authorities, fly-tipping is now their number one environmental issue. The number of fly-tipping incidents reported April 2020 to March 2021 was the highest on record with 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents, an increase of 16% from the 980,000 reported in 2019/20.
This is nothing short of a national disaster and clearly suggests that existing measures are not working.
We published the first version of ‘Reaching the Tipping Point’ back in 2016 and our ultimate aim remains undiminished; we want to eradicate fly-tipping.
Much has been achieved in this time:
- Our Crime not to Care campaign has been taken up by 52 local authorities, with others coming on board, and we continue to work hard to encourage householders not to give their waste to flytippers.
- We are pleased that our calls for new policy levers have been heard, in particular with the introduction of fixed penalty notices for flytipping and for householders who fail to comply with the duty of care when handing over their waste.
- Our call for higher fines and greater use of custodial sentences has been heard and we are pleased to see direct reference to the need to address this in the government’s Resources and Waste Strategy.
- Finally, our Centre for Social Innovation has been busy researching the drivers and causes of fly-tipping, working with a range of partners to develop new policy ideas and solutions.
However, more work is required. We need a national, strategic approach to the issue, engaging all stakeholders and delivering real outcomes, if we are to reach a ‘tipping point’ and substantially reduce the number of recorded incidents each year. We believe fly-tipping can be effectively eradicated within ten years and this refresh of our fly-tipping action plan outlines the actions we believe are now required to meet this challenge.
Contact us to find out more about how we can help: 01942 612 655 or 01942 612 648
Email us: network.enquiries@keepbritaintidy.org
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Give householders the information they need
Since the launch of our #CrimeNotToCare campaign, forty local authorities are now participating with some reporting at least a 15% decrease in fly-tipping.
If we are to cut off the supply of waste to fly-tippers at source, it remains critical that the public are made aware of their legal responsibility to check that they are transferring their household waste to a carrier registered with the Environment Agency. Crucially, householders who fail to comply must also face sanctions, if the legislation is to provide any form of deterrent. We recognised that taking householders to court, for what many magistrates consider a relatively minor offence, was time-consuming for local authorities. Therefore, we were pleased that the government heeded our calls for a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) provision and introduced this from January 2019 for breaches of householder Duty of Care. We want to prevent householders falling foul of the law in the first place and this can only be achieved with a national, concerted campaign to raise awareness across all local authority areas.
Action: We will build on the #CrimeNotToCare campaign, developing it further in light of current research and we call on government to work with us in rolling out a national campaign to local authorities and households across the country
Reform the licensing system for waste carriers, brokers and dealers
Encouraging householders across the country to check that waste carriers are licenced with the Environment Agency is only useful if the licensing system is robust and cannot be abused by fly-tippers.
Evidence from various multi-agency operations targeting illegal vehicles demonstrates that waste carriers are often caught operating without an Environment Agency licence and previous research has illustrated that it is far too easy to obtain an Environment Agency licence, with only a minimum of background checks performed. In addition, anyone can advertise waste collection services without the need to prove they are correctly licensed. Clearly, reforming the licensing system for waste carriers is vital if we are to both encourage public confidence in the system and drive out rogue waste operators and fly-tippers. We therefore welcome government plans in the Resources and Waste Strategy to overhaul the system and ‘ensure that all waste is only carried, brokered or dealt by bona fide, properly regulated companies’. We consider that government could explore additional initiatives associated with the new scheme, such as clamping down on print and digital advertisements for waste removal services unless posted by a licensed waste carrier.
Keep Britain Tidy calls for urgent reform of the carriers, brokers and dealers system to prevent fly-tippers from holding a licence, including a requirement for all applicants to be registered for tax and the introduction of mandatory technical competency. We also call for regulations to prevent advertising of waste services unless supported by a legitimate waste carrier licence.
Make it easy for householders to do the right thing
We must focus on making it easier for householders to dispose of their waste legally. It can be challenging for householders to dispose of bulky waste items that can’t be placed in a residual waste bin or recycling container, such as furniture, fridges and washing machines.
Our research into fly-tipping behaviour reveals that a lack of convenience is a significant driver of fly-tipping behaviour, even more so than cost. Therefore, it is critical for local authorities to look at reducing or removing the barriers that prevent residents accessing services that allow them to dispose of their waste responsibly. If you have access to a vehicle, waste can of course be taken to a local authority Household Waste Recycling Centre. However, cuts to local authority budgets have led to closures, reduced opening hours or the introduction of charges. Local authorities also offer bulky waste collection services from home but these incur a separate charge and sometimes the collection can take weeks, depending on demand. Again, if you have access to a vehicle, under Producer Responsibility legislation white goods retailers will take back end-of-life white goods in store when a like-for-like purchase is made. However, collection from home usually incurs a separate charge. Keep Britain Tidy believes that if we want to reduce fly-tipping of bulky household waste items then we have to make disposal easier for householders.
Landfill tax was originally introduced to divert waste from landfill and encourage waste prevention and recycling, however, it has probably and inadvertently encouraged fly-tipping. We therefore call on government to consider using landfill tax receipts to support local authorities in providing free, easily accessible services including Household Waste Recycling Centres and bulky waste collections. We also call on government to urgently introduce Extended Producer Responsibility for bulky household goods and place the onus on manufacturers and distributors to offer free, easily accessible take-back schemes for goods they place on the market, once they become waste.
Develop effective and impactful enforcement strategies
There is no one-size fits all approach to investigating and tackling fly-tipping at a local level. Instead we need targeted initiatives, better partnership working and consistent enforcement training for officers on the ground.
We know that many local authorities work hard to deter fly-tipping and when they collaborate in multiagency partnerships real impact can be achieved. Disruption of prolific fly-tippers can work effectively when there is wider intelligence sharing both across borders and organisations. It is reassuring to see more authorities now pooling their shared knowledge and expertise through wider stakeholder groups to address the problem. Joint initiatives include sharing prolific fly-tipper’s details on the Police National Computer to avoid offenders from racking up multiple crimes across local authority borders, while some local authorities have agreed to set their FPNs at the same level to prevent fly-tippers selecting areas based on the lowest penalties for dumping. We need to see more authorities participating actively with other stakeholders, including neighbouring councils, the Police and landowner groups. Developing joint strategies for enforcement through collaboration can produce real results and make a tangible impact on flytipping.
We want to see greater collaboration in tackling this national problem. Keep Britain Tidy will continue to support local authorities in tackling fly-tipping, providing nationally consistent expert training through our National Enforcement Academy, recognising good practice in our annual local authority awards and providing consultancy support for local authorities in developing flytipping strategies and plans, while developing and sharing case studies of good collaborative practice.
Encourage stiffer sentencing in magistrates’ court
Fly-tipping is a serious crime, damaging local environments, harming communities and injuring wildlife. Most cases are heard in magistrates’ courts where fines of up to £50,000 and/or a 12-month custodial sentences can be issued.
Yet analysis of fly-tipping fines demonstrates that around 90% of fines issued by magistrates are still less than £1,000, with many well below £500. Furthermore, there is a lack of consistency, with average fines for fly-tipping varying from £300 to £1,300 across the country. This level of penalty is unlikely to act as a deterrent to the ‘professional’ fly-tipper. We previously called on magistrates to make better use of the sentencing powers available to them and, in particular, apply the criteria set out in the Sentencing Council’s ‘Environmental Offences Definitive Guideline’ on sentencing. We are therefore pleased to see that government has recognised the need for tougher sentencing and undertaken to work with magistrates, the Judicial Office and the Sentencing Council in ensuring that fines and custodial sentences provide a genuine deterrent for fly-tippers.
We are calling on government to proceed with urgency on this matter and introduce monitoring and review of fly-tipping sentences to ensure that the sentencing guidelines are being applied correctly and fairly across the country. Keep Britain Tidy will continue to demand higher sentences for fly-tipping offences and will work with magistrates and the Judicial Office to encourage rapid progress on this issue.
Develop and implement new evidence-based policies
Through Keep Britain Tidy’s ongoing programme of research, including analysis of flytipping data, householder surveys and interviews with local authority teams, we now better understand the behaviour of those who fly-tip and why they do it.
A range of insights has been developed to inform national policy including the need to, as far as practicable, reduce the ‘hassle’ factor for householders managing their waste, encourage the use of nationally consistent and simpleto-understand language when describing waste and the need to raise the profile of the social and environmental impacts of fly-tipping. The research insights have also enabled development of a series of innovative behavioural interventions that are being piloted and robustly monitored in the field. These include interventions such as ‘wastefree’ streets, through which local authorities would ensure that bagged domestic and commercial waste is not left out on streets for collection, where evidence demonstrates it encourages additional fly-tipping and littering. The results of all new interventions will be shared as they become available and scaled across the country for wider impact.
Keep Britain Tidy will publish and share our research insights with government, local authorities and private landowners and recommend key evidence-based policy measures that will make a real impact on levels of fly-tipping. We will share behavioural interventions and toolkits with local authorities to provide effective, evidence-based and tested solutions to enable them to drive down flytipping in their areas.
Develop a circular economy
With more than 650,000 fly-tipping incidents comprising household waste and a further 65,000 involving white goods or electrical items, we urgently need to develop a circular economic model that values waste and actively encourages its recovery.
The principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) will be a key driver in delivering this change. Government needs to incentivise manufacturers to create products that are longer lasting, easily repairable and fully recyclable and ensure they are responsible for the full net cost of recovering products once they become waste. The government’s Resources and Waste Strategy commits to a review of existing producer responsibility schemes for items such as electrical goods and the opportunity to introduce EPR on items such as furniture, mattresses and carpets.
Keep Britain Tidy therefore calls on government to urgently introduce robust EPR schemes for manufacturers and distributors of those household items commonly fly-tipped, making it easier for householders to have their waste items recovered legally and discouraging fly-tipping while promoting recovery, reuse and recycling.
