The Impact of Christmas on Fly Tipping

Fly-tipping – the act of illegally dumping rubbish in public areas – is a nightmare for councils, local authorities, and those businesses unfortunate enough to bear the brunt of someone’s laziness.

Over the course of the year, local authorities in England will have to deal with over one million instances of fly-tipping. The majority of these incidents involve fly-tipping in quantities equal to a small van load. The most common location for fly-tipping is on highways, but all sorts of premises, streets, and back alleys have fallen victim to these acts of vandalism (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2019).

Fly-tipping: The statistics

Although most of us will find a way to spread our Christmas garbage out over several bin collection cycles – or even go to the tip! – there remains a small minority of the UK population who choose to fly-tip when the Christmas garbage piles up.

To be precise, the guilty party constitutes 10% of UK residents, according to research by waste removal experts, Clearabee. That doesn’t sound like that much, does it? Well, 10% of the British population equals 1.5 million people who confess to fly-tipping over the Christmas period. Now it starts to add up.

Fly-tipping costs taxpayers £58 million annually. That figure should be enough to make anyone realise the scale of the problem. And at Christmas, it only gets worse (BBC News, 2017). 

Who is responsible for the cost of fly-tipping?

If garbage is dumped in public spaces, then the clear-up costs come straight out of the taxpayer’s pocket. However, if dumped on private property, removing the waste is your responsibility – and your expense. 

There is nothing you can do to cover the cost of removing the waste, but you can pursue prosecution for the crime. If you discover fly-tipping on your land, make sure to document everything and photograph the waste from multiple angles. Make sure you approach any waste that appears with caution – you never know when there are hazardous materials contained within.

Protecting your premises from Christmas fly-tipping

Once the rubbish has been dumped on your land, you’re left footing the bill. This is true for public authorities and local councils as well as private landowners.

That’s why it’s worth investing in proper security systems to prevent fly-tipping in the first place. In the long-run, you may well find this saves you time in clearing the space and helps your property maintain its value – fly-tipping sites are hit by lower valuations.

At the end of the day, nobody wants their site to be a target of fly-tipping. It makes your business or public place look uncared for and encourages further acts of vandalism. In general, it detracts from the area.

Fly-tipping defence from Safe Security Solutions 

Safe Security Solutions serves both private landowners and local authorities. Our systems can be fitted to home residences, government buildings, or public spaces. 

We recommend our Safe Buried Portable Kit. These kits can be moved from site to site to follow the fly-tippers as they try to find new places they can get away with illegal dumping.

Our buried kits are invisible, nestled underground. This means they are immune to vandalism or any attempt to hide. Instead, you’ll be alerted when there is a trespasser on your site, giving you the opportunity to react in real-time. What’s more, our sensors can be integrated to coordinate with any existing security system.

Read more about our buried security solutions at our sister site, Safe Buried Security. Alternatively, visit our sectors page to see all the premises our systems support.

Interested in defending your site from Christmas fly-tippers?

Our security solutions are not one-size-fits-all. As well as our Safe Buried Portable Kits, we offer a variety of perimeter detection systems – all to military standards and at the cutting edge of technology. Whatever your site, we’ll have a solution for you.

Contact us today to find out how we can protect your land.