Microchips in wheely bins, compostable supermarket food packaging (as announced today by Sainsburys). Sounds like the waste debate in the UK is moving in the right direction. But what about flytipping? Tightening up the existing laws don't seem to be tackling this endemic problem.
A recent article from the IPPR states that "fly-tipping must be made as socially unacceptable as drink-driving and smoking around babies". But the fact is that flytipping IS already socially unacceptable, the problem is policing it. Enforcement officers currently search through rubbish bags for giveaway address labels, but now the flytippers are getting wise to it and don't include old letters in their rubbish. The incentives to flytip are high for some people (e.g. cost and lack of local knowledge) and these issues need to be dealt with. But penalties are crucial.
One solution is to involve communities more in finding out who is behind the mess. OK i t's a bit stasi-state but surely more worthwhile than the 'shop a smoker' hotline currently being planned by the government. A residents association I've visited in Stockton on Tees have seen great reductions in domestic flytipping since they began weekly volunteer walks to monitor where the flytipping is coming from and informing the council about it.
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