Most people consider the responsible disposal of waste our duty to the planet and to subsequent generations. However, there are always a few selfish individuals who are prepared to spoil it for the rest. Those who drop litter and those guilty of fly-tipping – illegally dumping waste – are cut from the same cloth. They don’t care about others. Councils have powers to bring prosecutions against fly-tippers, but are they being used?
Public Land vs Private Land
If waste has been deliberately dumped on council-owned property or public land, then it is the council’s responsibility to remove it. This is organised at the local authority level. Incidents should be reported to your Borough, District or City Council. When waste is fly-tipped onto private land, it is the responsibility of the landowner to remove.
Reporting Fly-Tipping
In order to keep our public areas as tidy as possible, community-minded citizens should report fly-tipping to the council. Reporting incidents to Norwich City Council is very simple: there is a form on their website to fill out. Great Yarmouth Borough Council make the process a little more complicated, you have to make an account with them first and then report any incidents through that.
National Data
Data on fly-tipping is collected at the local level and ‘published’ by the national government in a giant spreadsheet once a year. We reported on the disappointing data for Great Yarmouth and Norwich when the latest figures came out in March. Needless to say, fly-tipping is on the increase, prosecutions are down, and the cost of the clear-up is escalating.
Responsible Disposal
We know the vast majority of people make an effort when it comes to disposing of their waste. They recycle and they hire a skip when they embark on a project that is likely to generate a lot of waste. Hiring a skip is a great way of ensuring your waste doesn’t wind up in landfill. We recycle over 90% of all the waste that we receive.
If you would like to hire a skip, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01493 668118. We can give you any advice you need regarding the sizes and suitable uses of our skips.
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