Environment Agency launches fly-tipping campaign

The Environment Agency has launched a campaign to help combat fly-tipping after an initial survey found 94% of landowners had suffered illegally dumped waste on their property.

The campaign includes a pilot scheme which aims to identify the true impact and extent of fly-tipping.

Gerald Lee, project manager for the Environment Agency’s Landowner Partnership, said: “The aim of our ‘Recognise, Report, Reduce’ campaign is to record fly-tipping incidents uniformly through a central online system for an extended period of time.

“We need this level of understanding to be able to provide tools and guidance for tackling a problem that we know anecdotally is a big issue for Britain’s landowners.”

The pilot scheme is now under way in the midlands and the north-west and is run in partnership with eight major UK landowners who will record fly-tipping on their land until April 2010.

“Although anecdotal evidence suggests that fly-tipping on private land is widespread, the true scale of the problem is still not known, making identifying potential solutions a challenge,” an agency official added.

“With clearance costs averaging £809 per removal, the figures underline a significant problem which the Environment Agency is determined to get to grips with,” she said.

She added that 83% of landowners did not formally record incidents often because there was no direct incentive for doing so.

“Under current legislation, landowners must cover the cost of removing fly-tipped waste in most instances,” she said.

The eight partners are:

• National Trust
  
• NFU
  
• United Utilities
  
• British Waterways
  
• Countryside Alliance
  
• Country Land and Business Association
  
• Network Rail
  
• Highways Agency.

For more information visit the Environment Agency’s Record2Reduce website.