CPRE Oxfordshire - Campaigns - Landscape & Environment

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Landscape & Environment - Fly-tipping

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CPRE’s Stop the Drop campaign aims to solve litter and fly-tipping problems blighting our countryside, cities, towns and villages.

Fly-tipping occurs every 12 seconds at a cost to the public purse of around £72 a minute.

In July 2007, Bill Bryson was elected President of CPRE coming to the role with passion and commitment to clean up the English countryside. CPRE’s anti-litter and fly-tipping campaign aims to raise awareness, change behaviour and most importantly restore the English countryside to its former beauty for all to enjoy.

The Menace of Fly-tipping in Oxfordshire

Fly-tipping is a menace that blights the Oxfordshire countryside. Worse, the problem is growing rapidly.

There were 6,370 fly-tipping incidents in Oxfordshire in 2006-7—up 460, or 8%, on the previous year. The total clean-up bill was £321,107—up £37,365 on the previous year. The amount of illegally-dumped trade waste increased in 2006-7, but incidents of household bin bags being dumped fell by 17%.

CPRE Oxfordshire is strongly opposed to fly-tipping because of its impact on the beauty of our countryside, hazards to health and our belief that the majority of waste should be recycled.

Why we need to stop Fly-tipping

Fly-tipping is the common term used to describe waste illegally deposited on land and in simple terms, a single bin bag upwards to thousands of tonnes of construction and demolition waste may constitute a fly-tip.

The illegal disposal of waste is an anti-social behaviour that is adversely affecting the amenity of our local environments and reducing civic pride. Fly-tipping poses a threat to humans and wildlife, damages our environment, and spoils our enjoyment of our towns and countryside.

A new incident of fly-tipping occurs every 12 seconds at a cost to the public purse of around £72 a minute

£73.7 million – the estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in 2006/07

£47 million – the estimated the cost of clearing fly-tipping from agricultural land alone in 2005/06 (Environment Agency). Areas subject to repeated fly-tipping may suffer declining property prices and local businesses may suffer as people stay away

Local authorities in England reported that they had dealt with more than 2.6 million incidents of fly-tipping in 2006/07 – up five per cent on 2005/06

There were only 1,796 successful prosecutions of fly-tipping in 2006/07 – a 1 in 1,460 chance of being successfully prosecuted

Over half (56%) of fly-tipping incidents reported were in alleyways

Black bags full of domestic rubbish account for 63% of all fly-tipping

77% of fly-tips involved household waste – a 5.4 per cent increase on 2005/06

95% of farmers have cleared up other people’s rubbish from their land.

Most people fly-tip to avoid paying the disposal fee called the landfill tax. Household rubbish is already paid for through council tax, but other waste is not, and a charge generally exists to have this waste removed or even to drop the waste off at a licensed tip yourself.

Fly-tipping can incur fines of up to £20,000 and/or 6 months imprisonment. Fines are unlimited if the case goes to the Crown Court or up to 2 years imprisonment, and up to 5 years if hazardous waste is dumped