Fly-tipping: What is it and why should you care?

Let’s meet this head on: what the hell is fly-tipping? We’ll forgive you for not knowing as you’re one of many. It’s not something that comes up in our day to day and it certainly isn’t translated across seas. The phraseology is all Brit, but it makes as much sense to us as it does to foreigners.

First out, it has nothing to do with cow-tipping* or any other animal-based tilting. Fly-tipping is illegally dumping waste in undesignated areas. We’re familiar with the idea of waste tips and this is all about tipping on the fly…with us so far? It extends from dumping fridges in fields to simply missing the bin with your wrapper: it’s littering, from little to large.

What many don’t realise is that fly-tipping is a criminal offence with some seriously hefty consequences. Offenders cough up thousands in fines, get jail time, or have their vans crushed into a cube to prevent further fly-tipping. Now we all dislike litter – it looks ugly and brings a neighbourhood down a notch – but why is fly-tipping punishment quite so extreme? And why on earth are you spending valuable YouTube time reading about it?

The latter is easy: because it affects you whether you realise it or not. There’s a few reasons as to why though. Fly-tipped items might be hazardous or biodegradable waste, such as the thankfully empty coffin and two live turtles dumped in Redbridge. This encourages vermin, can cause illness, injure people and animals, and is environmentally awful. Serial fly-tippers also con people by taking money to dispose of goods legally, only to dump them nearby.

It can also result in the broken window effect. Take a festival like Notting Hill Carnival for example – all the bins fill up quick. People soon tire of full bin after full bin and put their container on the ground nearby. This encourages others to do the same. Eventually, even the best of us are adding to the growing pile that some poor bugger has to pick up. One bad turn encourages another, and a broken window or dumped mattress makes an area look uncared for. Others will quickly treat it as such.

All of these are good enough reasons for local councils to crack down on fly-tipping, but the biggest reason is simple:

Fly-tippers are dicks.

We like to discourage dickish behaviour as often and as quick as possible. Fly-tippers ruin areas, encourage crime, disease, pollution and scavengers and that’s just not okay with us. The reasons they do it are the same ones that motivate everything else: money and laziness.

London is one of the worst offenders with 40% of all fly-tipping happening in the capital. For my two cents, the reason is likely due to lack of cars. It’s a hassle to maintain a car in the city when most of us rely on trains (sorry Southern users) to get around. Those that do aren’t likely to own large enough vans to transport heavy goods like sofas. This means we’re up the creek and our paddle’s replaced with two TVs, an old desktop computer and a stained microwave.

Councils will collect large bulky items, but it’s often for a fee. Fifteen pounds per oven might not be much to most, but for those living on the line it’s impossible. The government is trying its best to fight fly-tippers, asking people to report it quickly, but as long as dumping in the street is cheaper than their service, it’ll continue to happen.

Some local councils have cottoned on and are offering it for free, hopefully inspiring others to do the same. In the meantime, we all have to do our part: don’t be a dick and dispose of or donate your stuff in a decent way.

*Please don’t tip cows. Unless they’ve given you really good service.

The post Fly-tipping: What is it and why should you care? appeared first on Felix Magazine.