How the council deals with illegally dumped waste (fly-tipping)
A national problem
Illegally dumped waste and littering is a national problem affecting every local authority in the UK.
30 million tonnes of litter is dropped every year across the UK, with £1 billion of taxes spent picking up litter and £500 million spent on cleaning up illegally dumped waste (fly-tips).
Keep Britain Tidy has lots of information about the impacts of litter and dumped waste on our climate and the environment and the campaigns they run if you want to find out more or get involved.
Littering and dumped waste in Newham
The council can only clear up rubbish dumped on public land in Newham. If rubbish is dumped on privately owned land, then it is the responsibility of the land owner to clear the rubbish. The council may carry out enforcement against those who fail to clear rubbish.
Penalties and the law on illegally dumped rubbish
It is a criminal offence to dump rubbish and carries a fine of £400. Those who do not pay their fines are liable to prosecution.
Over the last year, we issued over 550 Fixed Penalty Notices for littering, illegal waste dumping and failure to produce waste transfer notices (up to October 2021).
Challenges with punishing offenders and CCTV
The council has to identify a person or business who illegally dumped the rubbish including their place of residence or business address, to issue a fine. Illegal dumpers often carry out these activities when no-one is around for example at night and wearing clothing that disguises their identity.
Using CCTV in fly-tipping hotspots is only useful if we can clearly identify who the person was, it rarely leads to us being issue fines or carry out prosecutions.
If you know the identity and addresses of people who illegally dump rubbish we welcome your reports, including photographs and video evidence.
You can report online at lovenewham.gov.uk
Bulky waste and furniture collections
We did pilot a 1 year free pick up collection service in 2019. The number of fly-tips did not decrease, and our crews were spending more time, and expending greater fuel emissions by travelling around the borough to pick up “single collection items”.
We now offer a very low payment collection service of £20.00 for up to six items, which is significantly cheaper than private waste collection companies.
Spread the word in your community
We will only eliminate illegal dumping of rubbish, if people know it is wrong and change their behaviours. Many people do not know that fly-tipping is an offence, and will follow the behaviours of others adding to existing fly-tips, or dumping their rubbish near recycling points or outside charity shops.
We need you to help us educate others, talk to your neighbours, resident and community groups about the effect dumped rubbish, littering and fly-tipping has on the local community.
Like you we love Newham and want to be proud of our great borough.
Our future plans for 2021 and 2022
For the remainder of 2021 we have committed to an increased number of clearance crews to clean up our borough. They will join forces with extra enforcement officers to issue fines to those criminally dumping their rubbish and mess across our borough.
We will carry out a comprehensive plan of work over 2021 and 2022 that aims to educate, engage, enforce and enhance the look and feel of fly-tipping hotspots, so that people are discouraged from dumping rubbish.