Recycling specialist Scott Bros has renewed its warning to householders after a hospital worker was ordered to pay £1,174 over three bags of fly-tipped rubbish.
The Teesside firm has previously urged people not to risk using unauthorised waste collectors who dispose of rubbish illegally and irresponsibly.
In the latest incident, a 26-year-old woman paid ‘a man with a van’ £20 to dispose of three bags of rubbish, which were found dumped on the nearby Trans Pennine Trail.
She was ordered to pay her local authority £620 in compensation, £324 in fines, £100 towards legal costs and a £130 victim surcharge after she admitted two fly tipping offences before magistrates in Warrington, Cheshire.
Peter Scott, a director with Scott Bros, said that the case highlighted the fact that many people are unaware they are legally responsible for ensuring that people who may be posing as legitimate carriers have a waste management licence.
He said: “There are still high levels of fly-tipping across the Tees Valley, which is exacerbated by the cost of living crisis.
“Many people are not aware that because they have bunged a ‘man with a van’ a few quid, they are liable if their rubbish is illegally disposed of, while others simply can’t be bothered to pay a visit to their nearest recycling centre.
“As well as being an eyesore, fly-tipping causes pollution to the land and water courses and is a threat to human health and wildlife.”
In the past Scott Bros has been the victim of fly tipping incidents on its own land. Items discarded included an old bath, tins of paint, kitchen units, rubble and scrap wood.
Local authorities in England dealt with 1.08m fly-tipping incidents – 60% of which involved household waste – during the year 2022/23, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
The most common size category was equivalent to a ‘small van load (31% of total incidents) followed by a ‘car boot or less’ (27%). There were 42,000 (4% of total incidents) involving ‘tipper lorry load’ size or larger, an increase of 13% over 2021/23. The cost of clearing these large fly-tipping incidents to local authorities in England was £13.2m.
Fellow Scott Bros director, Bob Borthwick, urged householders to ensure they protect themselves from prosecution by using correctly registered waste carriers with a waste carriers licence. Householders and businesses have a duty of care to ensure their waste is correctly disposed of and can check if a person or business holds the valid licences via the Environment Agency website.
“In this case a woman who paid someone £20 to dispose of three bags of rubbish has ended up having to pay more than £1,000 that she can ill-afford,” he added.