Fly tipping on Bwlch mountain.

[SpokeyDokey]

Just beyond belief what some people do - fly tipping in a beauty spot.

BBC News - Mountain rescue's 12-hour operation to clear 'river of rubbish' seen 3 miles away:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r862p0e85o

 

[presta]

Judging by the National Park Rangers I follow on twitter, the Lake District's been going the same way since the covid staycations, they post photos that look like morning after scenes at Glastonbury festival. There's also a craze for videos of stuff rolling down hills, it started with tyres, then wheels, then boulders, then complete cars.

The problem is that once one person makes a mess, others think they might as well follow suit, and then it becomes hard to stop.

Back in my day, I noticed that virtually all the litter was confined to just the places that motorists get to. Litter bugs seem deterred by the effort of parting their bum from a car seat.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Yes, it is getting slowly worse up here (LD).

Not just the tourists though, local fly tippers are increasing, plus youngsters up 'lovers lanes' can be very messy - Stella cans, McD cartons, Rizla packaging and condom outers and the occasional used one, too.

It's not an epidemic, despite what the press portray the situation as, but it is on the increase.

 

[T4tomo]

That all mainly looked like local fly tippers. I'm sure it costs councils more to clean up after fly tippers than the revenue they raise from charging "businesses" to use municipal refuse / recycling centres.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

As others have said, my impression from local cycling in East Anglia, over the last few years flytipping appears to be getting a lot worse.

But, I can see contributory factors beyond just more people dumping more rubbish. Where it is the land owner's responsibility to clear, that local Council run tips seem to be getting less convenient to use and/or charging might mean landowners leave flytipped rubbish for longer.

Councils seem to be slower at responding to reports (meaning more sites with fly-tipped rubbish sitting sometimes for ages. Some time back I reported a load of domestic furniture (chest of drawers, double matress, double bed, etc. in a ditch and it too the Council over 1 year to remove it.

It's no excuse, no justification but that local Council tips are now so much harder to use (eg my local one tried to charge me last time I went there just some DIY timber offcuts as they recycle, just in my small hatchback, no van), only cash, no receipts. I refused so they allowed me to put in their timer recycling bin anyway. Another I have used near where parents used to live you now have to book a time slot online in advance. All extra grief encouraging those how "might" to become those who "do"

I'm sure more rubbish is being tipped more often but there might be agravating factors.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I try to remember to report anything I see

as i prefer riding around small lanes and paths then I do sometime see fly tipped stuff

So I try to remember to take a photo and report it when I can (OK - I always CAN but sometimes I sort of don;t then feel guilty)

then have to report it

I reckon that if you report it and see it again then reporting it again helps

someone somewhere will have the reports and have to publish then every year or whatever

and the council don;t want data out there looking bad so it is worth re-doing it if it doesn;t go


reminds ms - must go and check that rusty old moped things that has been there for years - I seldom go that way and kept forgetting to report it
did it and as it is a motor vehicle the Police have to deal with it
but if I go and check I can check on the burnt old sofa I have done twice now!

 

[itboffin]

I visited Brecon over the bank holiday weekend and was totally shocked at the amount of rubbish everywhere, we rode 80 miles and almost none of it was without roadside litter, vast amounts of vapers and vape packaging, fast food and plastic bottles, it was so sad to see. I’ve visited wales all of my life and never seen anything like it.

Seriously what is going on with people

 

[Oldhippy]

Some people are just morally and ethically bankrupt sadly.

 

[itboffin]

We can’t let this become a thing, there has to be something we can do

 

[steveindenmark]

You need to sort your recycling centres out and make it easy for people to deposit stuff. There seems to be this iron hand over everything in the UK. Those in charge like to demonstrate the power they have. In the Danish recycling centres, they are open 24/7 and you can remove anything within reach. I can collect trailer after trailer of compost, free of charge. I have had so much from recycling. The chest of draws for my allotment kitchen set up, were from there. I have never seen fly tipping in Denmark. Probably because the tips are so accessible.

 

[Dadam]

You need to sort your recycling centres out and make it easy for people to deposit stuff. There seems to be this iron hand over everything in the UK. Those in charge like to demonstrate the power they have. In the Danish recycling centres, they are open 24/7 and you can remove anything within reach. I can collect trailer after trailer of compost, free of charge. I have had so much from recycling. The chest of draws for my allotment kitchen set up, were from there. I have never seen fly tipping in Denmark. Probably because the tips are so accessible.

100%. There's this thing in the UK that boils my piss, of just not thinking things through.

"Our council budgets are stretched so let's charge for commercial waste!" ... then someone in another department "we don't have enough budget for clearing up all the flytipping". Just connect the dots people!

In Leeds while most domestic waste deposits and collections are free, there's a charge for gypsum products like plasterboard. So what happens? It gets broken up and hidden in domestic waste bags or flytipped. Wow who could possibly have foreseen that!

It seems to be structural too, not confined to particular organisations. It's very easy to point at the public sector but large corporates are just as bad if not worse.
"If we lay off 20% of our staff we'll save millions a year" ... "we're spending too much on contractors"
Doesn't matter though, it's appearing on somebody else's balance sheet!

It's becoming clear to me. It's all the fault of accountants!

 

[Alex321]

You need to sort your recycling centres out and make it easy for people to deposit stuff. There seems to be this iron hand over everything in the UK.

It is a lot essier than many people seem to think.

Yes, you need to book ahead for ours in Vale of Glamorgan, but that takes 2-3 minutes online, and you can book for the same day. That is just to make sure they don't get 100 people all turning up at once.

And you can go as often as you like (immediately after COVID it was restricted to 2 visiuts a month, but that changed within a year). Just tuyrn up with your car full and chuck everything into the relevant skip.

I think most other South Wales councils operate very similarly. There really isn't any excuse for driving out to a beauty spot and just dumping stuff there. The people doing that probably had to drive further than they would have done to their nearest official centre.

I have never seen fly tipping in Denmark. Probably because the tips are so accessible.

While that helps, I suspect it is more about mindset. OK, they aren't accessible 24/7 here, but still available for plenty of hours, including weekends. They only close Christmas day, Boxing day and New Year's day.

 

[presta]

"Our council budgets are stretched so let's charge for commercial waste!" ... then someone in another department "we don't have enough budget for clearing up all the flytipping". Just connect the dots people!

Which is why I keep arguing that waste disposal needs to be free at the point of use, and the cost put on the purchase price of products when they're new. That way in can't be evaded, it's an incentive to waste less, and you can charge selectively, with the highest charges for products that are the most expensive to recycle and/or most environmentally damaging.

 

[Electric_Andy]

open 24/7 and you can remove anything within reach

This is a fantastic idea, but my only guess as to why they don't allow it in the UK is this: Some unscrupulous people would go there to just take stuff, and sell it on, which would possibly be hazardous to the unsuspecting FB marketplace buyer. Especially things like car and motorbike parts. I once tried to tip an old metal motorcycle luggage rack, and was told "you can't bring that here, we don't accept motorcycle parts". It was literally just a lump of partially rusted metal.

There is a recycling centre in the town near me where they part out all of the useable stuff (like bikes) and display it in a shop. My dad bought a childs bike there for £15 which just needed a new chain and a brake cable. But they don't do it anywhere else in the region

 

[Drago]

Our local council have introduced appointment only tip visits, and claim it won't increase fly tipping.

The council in the neighbouring county did have the appointment scheme for visiting the tip but have binned it off a few months ago as they reckoned any saving was being wiped out by the indreased levels of fly tipping,

You couldn't make it up.