Why Is Fly Tipping A Problem?
19th May, 2017
Fly tipping is on the opposite end of the scale to responsible skip hire, and it’s a sadly growing problem here in the UK. But despite the threat it poses to human, environmental and animal health, it’s not getting an awful lot of mainstream press amongst the other dominating news headlines, which means that for a lot of us, it’s a very underappreciated problem.
What Is Fly Tipping?
Basically, fly tipping is a fairly broad term that refers to the illegal dumping of waste. It can be liquid or solid (or, in all-too-common cases, a mix of both), and can vary in quantity. In lots of cases, it’s what happens when people decide they can’t be bothered hiring a skip. Sometimes it can be as little as a single bin bag, but in the majority of cases it’s considerably more. For the 2015/16 year, around a third of all recorded fly tipping incidents consisted of amounts that equated to a “small van-load”. That’s at least two or three full-sized household bins being dumped in our countrysides and lanes!
The thing that makes fly tipping an exceptionally nasty crime is that these dumps are almost never accidental. Far more often, they’re the results of pre-planned and deliberate efforts to remove the waste from the place where it was produced (whether household or business), and essentially make it someone else’s problem. Sometimes this is out of laziness, but for the bigger incidents there’s often an element of financial saving involved – people would rather dump their rubbish than pay for skip hire.
Why Fly Tipping Is A Big Problem
We imagine we don’t have to go into massive detail about the most obvious reasons why fly tipping is such a huge problem for Britain. Those in the waste disposal industry – us included! – are constantly trying to find new ways to handle existing waste and minimise the risks it poses to human, animal and environmental health. That’s why we have so many guidelines and regulations about how we responsibly handle your waste when you hire a skip from us.
Simply dumping it in the street or countryside, however, undermines all that. It makes local animals and wildlife vulnerable to choking or getting caught up on plastic materials, and the fumes or toxins from hazardous substances can pose a very serious and immediate threat to human health. Again, that’s why we at Skip Hire Network have quite so many rules for dealing with hazardous waste correctly!
Areas that suffer from repeated instances of fly-tipping can start to suffer in terms of their reputation, too. Not only can it make previously beautiful landscapes look ugly and spoiled, but can damage local property prices and local businesses may suffer as people stay away.
What’s Being Done?
At the moment, the government is considering a number of ways to tackle this steadily more important problem. Cases of fly-tipping have increased by 27% over the last two years, and it costs our nation well over £85 million each year to clear up – sometimes even more than double that number.
In 2015/16, local councils and authorities dealt with over 930,000 fly tipping incidents; sadly, not far off a million. At the moment, fly-tipping is a criminal offence punishable by up to £50,000, or a year’s imprisonment. In Crown Court, this punishment can be upped to an unlimited fine, or five year’s jail time. As we mentioned, the government are apparently considering changes to this system, but there are no concrete changes on the table yet.
The problem of fly tipping makes the importance of responsible waste disposal all the more clear, and it’s a stark illustration of why when you have stuff to get rid of, hiring a skip is always going to be your best option. Our environmental and green initiatives aren’t just a passing issue for us – they’re a central concern, and a crucial part of how we do business.
You can read more about how we help the environment by clicking here, as well as finding out about some other fantastic reasons to choose us for all your skip hire needs. On the other hand, you can go to our homepage to enter your postcode and phone number now, and hire a skip today!
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