Have you / someone you know ever fly tipped?
Posted by steveysaidthis@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 72 comments
Hi, I work in complaints for a local council and we get sooo many fly tip reports, I know there are businesses that do this but as a private individual I guess I want to know:
1) have you ever fly tipped?
2) do you do it regularly?
3) what is the reason, is it just the convenience or not enough council services or anything else?
P.s I probably don't work for your council so please don't kick off with me! :) also I am only asking out of curiosity, this is not a council feedback thingy.
PKblaze@reddit
No.
Neighbours do it though. It's just laziness and a lack of respect for the environment.
IndividualCurious322@reddit
No I haven't.
I've seen the result of people fly tipping though. Suddenly HUGE piles of junk, sofas, broken chairs ect sitting on the corners of streets.
Ill-Supermarket-2706@reddit
Never but my council gave us a fly tipping notice because we left a recycling bag outside collection time and they opened it to find out our details. We always lived in flats where the bin area was internal and communal never on the road so we didn’t know that dropping a sealed bag ahead of time would count the same as disposing of our entire household waste in a random area. We got away without a fine but we were terrified and later religiously dropped bags within the specific time window allowed. The report came from an old neighbour with nothing do do but monitoring the rest of the road…
TimedDelivery@reddit
I had a neighbour a few years back who insisted that it’s just what you do to get rid of bulky junk. You have a broken sofa or cot your kid’s frown out of, you take it across the road to the public park and leave it there, the council comes and gets it a few days later, job done! He was 100% sure that it was legal and that anyone that argued against it were just being snobs, would not be convinced otherwise.
bars_and_plates@reddit
It depends what you consider fly tipping.
I often leave things like shelves or old furniture out in the street, it usually goes to someone within a day.
If I think it's waste and no-one will want it then it goes to the tip.
EyeAware3519@reddit
I do it all the time because I like dags
toady89@reddit
No, I won't drop litter either even if it means carrying it for 20 minutes.
ViscountGris@reddit
In Scotland I once drove past a plumbing van emptying rubbish into a local farm field. I was so pissed off that I did a u turn and filmed it and then parked up and continued filming and then filmed the driver, the van, the registration plate, the act of fly tipping, the after effect and the van leaving.
I gave it all to my local council who told me the evidence wasn’t clear enough and then told me - after I emailed my councillor - that they had visited the plumber and asked to see their commercial dumping licence which was all in order and therefore no action was taken.
Utter fuckwits. While I grassed up a guy who walks around with a heavy duty wrench and knows my reg plate.
kifflington@reddit
No; I'm a farmer and I know the harm it does. If councils want to stop it they need to stop charging for waste disposal. Literally the only way it's going to stop, in my opinion.
jordsta95@reddit
Or, just as importantly, actually do it.
When we were moving house last year, we knew we weren't going to take the sofa with us. So we go to check the council website to get a bulky waste removal - as we don't have the vehicle (or realistically the strength) to do it ourselves.
"We do not currently offer this service at the minute".
Page last updated 2023.
So for 2 years they weren't collecting bulky waste.
I checked now, and they seem to finally be doing it again. But that's insanity. I understand why so many people were leaving sofas, washing machines, etc. in their front garden for months on end.
If you can't remove it yourself, what are you gonna do?
I don't get fly tipping, because you went through the effort of loading it into a van or whatever to take it somewhere. But councils really need to sort their shit out with waste.
Our new council have just switched to 3 week collections. I wonder how long it will be before general waste starts to get dumped in back alleys or whatever, because they ran out of room in their bins.
HydrostaticToad@reddit
Fly tipping is also people taking money for disposing of waste and dumping it which explains why you would do it I think
Forgetful8nine@reddit
Had a neighbour accuse me of it a few years ago.
I was getting ready to do a tip run and dropped a load of rubbish at the back of my van because I had left the keys in the house. I was gone a few minutes - 5 tops. She out there whinging saying she was going to call the police.
Before that, she accused me of dumping a caravan on her front. I rolled it back to fit my car into the gap to hook it up. Again, a matter of maybe 5 minutes.
Miserable old hag has moved now.
DameKumquat@reddit
I haven't and never would, but a lot happens near me. Ever since the council started charging £25 for bulky waste collection, and being fussy about what counts as an 'item'. They tried arguing that sofa cushions were a separate item to a sofa, last time I used them.
Loads of people round me don't have a spare £25, and the tip is a 45 min drive away and you need a vehicle, which they don't have. So it's not rocket science. My neighbour puts excess waste on the main road, where there's daily collection from all the shops, and it blends in and gets taken away - that's probably legally fly-tipping, but if it's removed in a few hours by waste collectors on their rounds...
Fly-tipping is one of the top 3 priorities for both main election parties here. A bulky waste amnesty day for every street each year is one suggestion.
EeveesGalore@reddit
That seems to be a big thing in the USA. I don't know why we don't do it here.
Frogbitch45776@reddit
Yes but accidentally. I used to live in a block of flats that had a bin shed on the street for our rubbish. Many residents would put large bulky waste in the bin shed for the council to remove so I did also when I replaced my sofa or wardrobes. A while later our housing association wrote to all residents and explained it was fly tipping and the bin sheds was for bin waste only and if it continued they would be increasing our service charges to cover the cost of bulky waste removal
Ok-Onion-5012@reddit
No, but I think in my area one of the issues is.
The word “fly tipping” is very difficult to know if you’re not from the UK. No rubbish/garbage would be better. I see so many “no fly tipping” signs and nothing happens.
regularly the council should send letters or leaflets to homes especially if they’re being rented explaining our system. Collection days. Waste recycling centres.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
It isn't always a knowing choice by people. Not that I am defending it. But it can be something like they borrow a van, do a big job, load it up and the tip won't take it. Or an ordered skip falls through. The van has to go back, or they have a job booked tomorrow - it is a genuine quandary. They dump it in a layby, justifying it in their head that the council should have taken it, and will clear it up in time, and move on. But mostly it is dodgy people who are saving a lot of money doing it as part of their routine. I do wish the council would make it easier to get rid of stuff as it just becomes inevitable.
hotchy1@reddit
I was tempted. Cheapest qoute to remove a commercial freezer was near £300 since I couldn't just take it to the tip myself. It still lives in my garage broken. Prices like that, and know wonder people dump stuff.
Although its second life of tool storage box seems to suit it now anyway.
Conscious-Ball8373@reddit
I live on the corner of a country A road. We very occasionally have a problem with people dumping a load of stuff in the lane etc.
A much bigger problem is people littering from passing traffic. I'm constantly picking up fast food wrappers, packing from supermarket sandwiches, drink bottles, lager tins... Even find the odd N2O canister (the 670g cylinders, not the little cream whipper charges).
bellabanjsk@reddit
No, and I don’t know anyone else who does! However, I think there a quite a few ‘waste removal’ companies in rural areas who aren’t actually licensed to dispose of things properly.
I also think the high cost for large item disposal at councils is one of the problems and think councils who adopt reduced rates for low income households will help this. Also think that pre-booking only at tips increases fly tipping and think that there should be pre-booking days and free for all days during the week.
Big_Cheese16@reddit
I recently booked a slot at my local tip. Got their and they wanted to check all my bags for recycling before I could throw them. I obviously refused and drove off to the next one. If they treat everyone like that they will just dump them in the countryside
TachiH@reddit
The best are the councils that run large item shops for low income areas. Near me we can have any furniture or white goods collected for free and they pay for it all by selling them super cheap.
PvtRoom@reddit
fly tipping is tempting. some people simply produce more rubbish, and can't reasonably get it to the tip.
no car = no tip, more deliveries, more rubbish,
work? great. your lunch rubbish is disposed at work.
WFH? more rubbish at home
GuelderRoseFruit@reddit
No. I used to live somewhere where one particular country road was constantly being fly tipped.
I almost had to once, however. I was given blood thinning injections after a c-section but no-where would take the used sharps bin and everyone I rang said to ask someone else, usually someone I'd already phoned and asked! Local pharmacy wouldn't. Doctor's office wouldnt't. The midwife centre wouldn't. The hospital pharmacy that dispensed them to me wouldn't. The council wouldn't (only take abandoned sharps ie from heroin users) and I couldn't put then in our bin either. I rang several pharmacies and they all wouldn't.
In the end I drove 45 minutes to the village (1.5 hour round trip with my 8 week old baby) we used to live in because the pharmacy there would take used sharps bins. It was fucking ridiculous and I was almost forced to fly tip.
shortercrust@reddit
I won’t and never would but I’m tempted. People use my road for fly tipping to the extent that the council comes round every couple of days. More often than not they’ll be a load of kitchen units, an old fridge or a boiler or something when I wake up. Now I’ve got a load of stuff to get rid of and of course I’m going to get a skip but almost feels futile.
dani-dee@reddit
No never. Whenever we’ve done renovations or anything we’ve always gotten a skip.
Plus our council does free bulky collections (I think it’s 1 free collection of up to 5 items every 2 months) so we got our old fridge, a bed and mattress and sofas collected for free when we bought new ones. We still have weekly general waste collections as well. So there’s really no need for anyone in our city to be fly tipping yet plenty still do.
Sure-Recognition-262@reddit
No
N/A
My understanding is that most individuals who "fly tip" are actually people who've paid a man with a van to take rubbish and dispose of it (perhaps because the individual lacks a car, or perhaps its too much to fit in a car), and the man with a van then dumps it, but the individual still counts as having fly-tipped it. Without seeking to excuse the man with the van in that scenario, the fact that someone paying someone to take their domestic waste to do the dump changes that waste to no longer be domestic waste and therefore not allowed to be dumped (or not allowed for free anyway) clearly contributes to that problem.
Outrageous_Bar6729@reddit
Yes, I have dumped garden waste (compostable only!).
An old house was in a terrace that butted up against a low fence that then bordered a motorway. There was a small wooded area at the top of the motorway embankment.
This is a piece of land that no one is going to buy, walk in, or use for any reason other than possibly motorway maintenance.
The houses in the terrace would occasionally throw the odd branch or small pile of leaves over the fence into the wooded area. I don't see a major issue with this as its fully natural and very very small scale. Anything not 100% natural would have been a big no-no though!
Upset_Measurement_31@reddit
Nope. The idea is abhorrent to me. I'm passionate about the environment and make sure the right things go into the right bins, and anything that needs to go to the tip gets there and is put in the correct place.
I do feel really strongly however that individuals fly tipping could be solved by not charging for the collection of large items and not penalising people for their bin lids not shutting.
We could also basically eliminate it at an individual/household level by collecting everything from the kerbside and paying for teams of people to sort it at the other end, rather than having complicated recycling rules that are different across the country.
On a balance sheet it seems like that would cost more. But how much do we spend on investigation, enforcement and repairing the damage that fly tipping causes?
Wooshsplash@reddit
I was witnessed somebody fly tipping. Being certain it is a criminal offence, I rang the police. They told me it doesn't fall within their scope and they told me to ring the local authority. I eventually got through to somebody (not easy) at the local authority. They told me to ring the police. During both calls I gave them the vehicle reg and descriptions. Even told them I had video of them doing it. Neither was interested and just passed the buck to one another.
The fly tippers saw me and realised I was reporting them. I got a shed load of abuse, threats and stuff thrown at me before they drove off laughing, knowing there will be no consequence to them.
This is why it is a problem. Lots of noise from both the police and LAs but no proactive and reactive actions. It all just comes of the LAs multi-million pound annual budget, free money, so why bother? Yet if we, as taxpayers, get vocal about these issues, such as fly tipping and potholes, we are viewed as petty meddlers. The LAs need to start listening to us.
Rant over...for now.
AirlineSevere7456@reddit
Never needed to, always had a proper council tip to go to for free.
MrBoggles123@reddit
No.
There are loads of people round here who advertised waste disposal on Facebook and aren't licenced. It peaked during lockdown and our local council had a crackdown by booking them to come to do a fake collection and fining anyone who turned up unlicensed or impounding vehicles.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
Waste management eh?
ResplendentBear@reddit
Police turned up at my parents door because the well known local window guy who was generally really well thought of fly tipped their old windows. And left documents with their address on. I really wonder about people sometimes.
As someone who likes walks in the country, fly tippers are absolute scum. But it's going to keep happening if you make waste disposal too expensive.
AvoriazInSummer@reddit
I knew of someone like that. He owned a white van and he lived in a rented caravan on a plot of land which he filled with work crap that he promised to deal with, then abruptly left without clearing it up. I think he did informal jobs for people and businesses and just dumped whatever mess that generated around the caravan (and most likely much more elsewhere). He didn't seem to have a stable life or much / any money, and it would be a bit pointless for the landowner to try and pursue legal action even if he could track the guy down.
Miserable_Future6694@reddit
Technically yes. I rotovated the garden to put turf down. We live in a 6 year old newbuild thats still being built on so under the soil is bricks wood scaffold clips and everything else from the build. I half filled 2 bins just so I could lift them and dumped them out at the site compound gate for one of avant homes crew members to shovel up in the morning.
I did try to take it to the tip thats but the workers said it was building waste and id have to pay to tip
bladefiddler@reddit
I haven't cos I'm not a cunt (well, not really/much!). But in all honesty, I have been tempted a couple of times.
As long as councils continue to make disposal of waste expensive and/or a pain in the arse, there will be folk who take the easier option - and those scum mentioned above who will gladly profiteer from the circumstances.
wdwhereicome2015@reddit
No No N/a
I live in an area that does suffer a lot from fly tipping. Have reported it multiple times. Driave along same road a couple of weeks later after it has been removed, and a load more fly tipping in the lay-bys.
I’m near the pennine way, and the roads along the moors look a right mess with all the fly tipping
Wide-Challenge-4874@reddit
No but we discovered a couple of years ago that the cheapest waste removal company in our area was cheap because that's what they did! Made the local news and everything.
Sudden_Hovercraft_56@reddit
No, however my mother in law was accused of fly tipping once.
She lives at the end of a mile long farm lane and her bins are kept at the end of the lane by the road. She had arranged a council roadside collection for a sofa and drove it down and put it next to her bins, then some busybody Karen pulled over and went nuclear on her for "Fly tipping". We would have forgiven it but she would not accept that it was for an arranged collection the following morning.
Bantabury97@reddit
I told my local council that it will take a while to clear my garden because of my shed and fences being destroyed and I also said a lot of the stuff in the shed can't be put into a skip.
She asked me if I drove. I said no. She asked me if I knew someone with a van. I said no, and that I can't afford to hire one.
She basically just said "you have 21 days to figure something out".
AussieHxC@reddit
You just phoned up the local council offices for the crack and they gave you a timeline to sort your life out or else?
Aware-Building2342@reddit
Blows my mind when the council can do anything for free. My council tax is £2800/yr for a mid terrace. None of it is free.
Bert1701@reddit
I do not, but I can understand why some people would. To get to the tip requires pre booking with a vehicle and slots are always taken at weekends and late afternoon.
I don't drive so I can't actually get there, which leaves bulk waste collection. This was actually really easy the last time I used it but they do charge per item which could get expensive.
That leaves privately hiring a man with a van who has a licence to dispose of waste. This can also get very expensive very quickly as they tend to charge by square metres or hourly.
And if garden waste counts, councils charging separately for the bin is just nuts.
Louis010@reddit
No but understand why it happens (not condoning it though), getting rid of business waste is surprisingly difficult, we aren’t allowed to use normal recycling centres, the commercial ones are all really far away (for me at least) and they’re ridiculously expensive.
For me I just have to put a disclaimer that I don’t take any rubbish from jobs otherwise I’d be stuck with so much rubbish with no realistic way to dispose of it correctly.
BrowsingOnMaBreak@reddit
I live off a country lane and the passing place near my house always has garbage bags dumped there, occasionally a mattress or similar household item. Someone even threw a fridge into a nearby irrigation channel. Great, now shit from that fridge is leaching into the water that’s irrigating our crops, thanks mystery fly tipper! 2 miles down the road is a recycling and waste centre, so it’s extra unacceptable.
Aware-Building2342@reddit
My mate used to live in Tulse Hill. If he wanted anything gone he'd just leave it out front and within 24 hours someone would have taken. Wood, old furntiture, all had value to someone
box_frenzy@reddit
I don’t fly too but I live on a road that sadly suffers with loads of dumping.
Legitimate removal techniques (eg council disposal or local tip) are way too expensive. And there are pretty much zero consequences for dumping rubbish on the street.
Councils responsibility to sort it out in my view.
No_Concept_3477@reddit
Yes, by accident! It was my first time renting solo and I paid someone to take away a load of rubbish I had no space in my bins for. They subsequently fly-tipped the lot, and there were things with my name/address on so the council came knocking!
As a 22 year old it was pretty frightening, but the anti-social behaviour guy from the council was great. I explained the situation, showed him the Facebook conversations and it turned out this guy was known and had been fined for flytipping before and was using a new name on Facebook. Long story short, I submitted written evidence for his trial and I believe he got a short prison sentence after multiple fly-tipping incidents!
Lesson learned for me! I had no idea that waste licences were a thing, how the local tip worked etc. Clearer information on this would have avoided the whole situation, but I was also a very naive 22 year old who didn't know better.
doraisexploring27@reddit
I got myself in a similar situation - no evidence that the person I paid actually did fly tip (I think it’s more likely that they probably tried to sell off some of the stuff I gave them) but I had a gut feeling afterwards that it was a stupid and naive idea to just get a random bloke on Facebook to remove all the junk from our garden shed. Like you, at the time I was young and silly and I had no clue about fly tipping laws or anything like that and only after reading up on it, did I realise I’d made a mistake!
Big_Tradition8082@reddit
I was on about this the other day,it would be so handy if the council gave each property a tip collection day every year or two, where they will collect items for folk who cant get to the tip,as part of the council tax charge. I've just recently moved with my family and have a lot of rubbish in my garden for now til I can dispose of it responsibly,I keep apologising to my neighbours for it,but for now I'd rather keep it with me til it's safely taken.
Sxn747Strangers@reddit
The worst I’ve ever done was a few small crumbs off a sausage roll, I ate the big ones.
No_Pea-1@reddit
I know someone who fly tipped. Well, I know his girlfriend. She said he dumped a TV box pn the side of a road. He got a fine in the post... they found him because he left his name and address on the box.
Ok_Kale_3160@reddit
Sometimes if you have an old washing machine or fridge and you leave it at the side of the road (next to your house) it will dissapear very quickly. I think the magical trash pixies only like to take large metal objects though
RoundSection6369@reddit
No, it's completely disgusting and anyone who does this should be ashamed. Same with casual littering. Leave no trace or our natural environment will suffer.
Und3adShr3d@reddit
When I was a kid and lived with my parents I lived joined on to a pretty big playing field. One thing I always remember is my aunty, who lived up the street taking all of the rubbish from her kids' Christmas presents and dumping it in the top corner of the field without a care in the world. She did this for what must have been 10 years, sneaking out in the dead of night and making a proper mess.
Over the coming weeks the rubbish would be torn to bits by dogs and kicked about by kids so it just ended up all over the field eventually. I think this is why I have a proper hatred for fly tipping.
Top-Car-808@reddit
if you wanting to know why people fly tip, it's because of the charges for commercial waste.
It's only residential / home owners that are allowed to use the waste centres for disposal.
Builders / renovators create a huge amount of waste, and they are charged for disposal. so there is a thriving market of dodgy people that go around asking builders if they want stuff cleared, for a small fee. Then then take that stuff and fly tip it, because they would be charged quite a lot at the recycling centre.
the huge rise in fly tipping correlates to the impositon of high charges for commercial waste. the solution to fly tipping is obvious - just get rid of the commercial fees for waste disposal. Then the market for fly tipping would disapear over night.
BarbiePeonies@reddit
Everyone in our neighbourhood puts their massive recycling and garden waste in the bins for the apartments on our street.
Worldly_Wafer_6635@reddit
Yeah I had this in an apartment I lived in a few years ago, it was so annoying because the bins were always full, and in a disgusting state.
YankyNotBrim@reddit
No because I'm not a cunt.
NorthernblokeUK@reddit
I'm not a fly tipper, however my local tip has some really weird rules about what can and cant be dumped but the one 4 miles down the road under a different council has different, much more lax rules. I end up going to the other further away because they seem to accept almost anything. I imagine some people would choose to dump stuff their local tip won't accept.
OpticalOkra@reddit
No No They just don't want to keep carrying rubbish
Shot-Specialist-9841@reddit
In our estate you just leave it on the front and wait for the kids to take it for a fire
Roofless_@reddit
Nice try Mr Policeman.
iffyClyro@reddit
No
As above
Mostly done by people that offer to take your stuff to the tip but don’t have the right licenses.
YOF626@reddit
I've never done it nor would I ever, it's one of the scummiest things you can do imo.
VolcanicBear@reddit
Someone who unfortunately used to live near me is one of those recycling scrap van people.
He repeatedly got fined for fly tipping. He kept his Environments Agency accreditation. The custom reg on his van is "F11TP" or something.
Until there are genuine consequences, pieces of shit will keep doing it.
HydrostaticToad@reddit
never, because I'm too chicken sht of CCTV or someone getting me on their ph-- I mean, because it's a very bad thing to do
UtopiaFrenzy@reddit
No but I do report a bunch so maybe I’m adding to your workload
velos85@reddit
No coz it’s scummy AF! It’s happens in my area all the time.
However, it’s hard to get rid of large objects when you don’t have a van. I got rid of a mattress and an old sofa through the council, and it took them 3 weeks to come collect it. Just sat outside my house getting rained on.
Clothes and other furniture that you can break down it what really annoys me. There are clothes banks everywhere and it takes no time at all to go to the tip now you have to book it.
Normal-Internal164@reddit
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