Less than one in 400 fly-tipping offenses were prosecuted over the past decade in the United Kingdom.
Clean Up Britain’s analysis of government data reveals that only 0.23 percent of fly-tippers were prosecuted between 2012 and 2021, with 95 percent of offenders receiving fines of less than £1,000.
However, between 2007 and 2017, the most recent years for which data is available, taxpayers spent a staggering £483 million cleaning up fly-tips.
John Read, the founder of Clean Up Britain, stated, “These data demonstrate that fly-tipping is out of control and in a condition of virtual lawlessness.”
There is little effective enforcement by municipalities, and the courts are far too sympathetic with fly-tippers that have “priced in” these petty fines as part of their operating expenses.’
The unauthorized disposal of trash is a criminal offense punishable by a maximum fine of £50,000.
However, it is uncommon for the full sum to be levied to violators.
Clean Up Britain is requesting that the government offer instructions mandating a minimum mandatory fine of £10,000 for fly-tippers, with repeat offenders and organizers of mass fly-tipping facing fines of £50,000.
They desire that the vehicles of fly-tippers be crushed and that litterbugs be given community punishments to clean up their own and other fly-tips.
Mr. Read stated, “Britain’s landscape is being destroyed, and the government doesn’t seem to care.”
More than one million fly-tips were reported by the Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs in the past year (Defra).
According to research conducted by the environmental organization Unchecked UK, London had the largest number of fly-tipping incidents in 2012, followed by the North East, the North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Will Oliver, a 33-year-old farmer from Leicestershire, told The Mail on Sunday that he had spent £4,000 constructing gates around his fields to prevent fly-tippers from dumping trailers, construction detritus, and trash from cannabis plantations. However, his efforts were in vain.
‘Nearly all of our gates are broken or damaged, so we now block the fields with large tires or concrete blocks, which is unsightly and detracts from the beauty of the countryside,’ he said.
A representative for Defra stated, “We have already granted local governments a variety of measures to combat fly-tipping, and our new waste reforms will go much further.”
Government changes aim to implement mandatory trash tracking that will allow authorities to detect unlawful behavior more effectively by tracing garbage from the point of production. Additionally, the government has established the Joint Unit for Waste Criminality to combat serious and organized crime in this field.