PieFed.WorldFly-tipping across England reaches record high
www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/25/fly…
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exaybachaeI read the article, WTF is fly-tipping?
Dumping trash on the side of the road I think
GreyShuckUsually it is just individuals or people from small businesses that tip rubbish somewhere they are not allowed to and then ‘fly’ from the scene: just leave it and run. This is usually so that they don’t have to pay to dispose of it - but sometimes just because they can’t be arsed to go to the actual waste disposal site.
Increasingly, criminal organisations are finding that they can make money from this: charging businesses for the disposal but then just dumping it, sometimes in enormous quantities.
It is only very recently that I realised that fly-tipping is not a widely used term outside the UK. I know that this also occurs in other countries, but I don’t know what it is called elsewhere.
NotyouI believe it’s called illegal dumping in the US. We have signs up in places. Some people take photos of themselves pretending to shit next to the signs.
Whilst I do not condone this nasty practice, I think some responsibility must be placed with local authorities. The availability of legal disposal sites has decreased significantly, and the cost to use the remaining ones has increased. My local tip for example has banned all vans and commercial vehicles, this was not the case a few years ago when commercial vehicles simply paid a reasonable fee. If there is no viable legal option, what will happen? Fly tipping. Local authorities have been cutting all types of waste management, including household waste, fortnightly bin collections for example? Also here the number of litter bins has decreased, and the remaining ones are always full or overflowing, Councils see waste disposal as a first hit for budget cuts, when this is backward thinking.
It’s boomed in Australia in the last ten years too. Country/Rural rest stops on major roads are looking like tips. It’s fucking disgusting.
I’m probably peddling conspiracies at this point - but I suspect that the cost of living has evicted a lot of renters, and forced homeowners to sublet their homes, resulting in a lot of home clearances (man/van) and DIY projects ramping up
Why don’t the fly tippers just take it to the tip?
A lot of the time it’s a man with a van scenario, where someone’s had too much rubbish to take to the tip themselves, so have hired someone cheap to take it away. They either don’t realise or don’t care that the person taking the rubbish isn’t licensed so can’t take it to the tip, and the rubbish gets dumped