Litter & flytipping

To report fly-tipping online please click here.

The presence of litter degrades the environment and affects people’s quality of life.

Litter can include something as small as a sweet wrapper or as large as a bag of rubbish.

Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 ( EPA ) makes it a criminal offence to drop, throw, deposit and leave litter.

The offender can be prosecuted by the police or local authority, it is also possible for private individuals to prosecute. The offence is dealt with by the Magistrates' court, with a maximum fine of £2,500.

From April 2006, Sec.88 of the EPA gives the power to issue a fixed penalty notice for the offence of leaving litter.

Fly-tipping is described as ‘the illegal deposit of any waste onto land (i.e. waste dumped or tipped on a site with no licence to accept waste). Waste includes: general household waste; larger domestic items, such as fridges and mattresses; garden refuse; and commercial waste such as builder's rubble, clinical waste and tyres. Such waste can occur in any quantities, in any mixture and in any location.

Before	After

Fly-tipping is a problem which causes pollution, degrades public areas, and costs local authorities millions of pounds each year to deal with.

If rubbish is fly-tipped on private land, the Environment Agency or the waste collection authority (the local authority) may serve a notice on the occupier requiring him to remove the waste and/or eliminate or reduce the consequences of the deposit. It is an offence not to comply with this notice and the land occupier has 21 days to appeal to the magistrates’ court before the waste must be removed. If the appeal fails and the waste is still not removed the local authority has the power to remove the waste and recover costs from the land occupier or those responsible for fly-tipping the waste, if they can be traced. If there is no occupier of the land or the fly-tipper cannot be traced, the local authority or the Environment Agency has the power to remove the fly-tipping.