Fly Tipping FAQs
Answers to some commonly asked questions about fly tipping.
Some useful questions and answers to help you understand your responsibilities for disposing of your waste.
Fly tipping is dumping anything onto public or private land. Fly tipping can be from households or businesses and can include large household items like sofas, mattresses and fridges; hazardous materials like asbestos; bags of mixed waste; rubble and other items from construction; tyres and vehicle parts, but it also includes tipping garden waste over your back fence or into woodland areas, leaving waste on the floor of a communal bin store, leaving bags of donations outside a charity shop or waste at the gates of a Community Recycling Centre when they are closed, leaving waste on the pavement outside your house or anywhere beyond the boundaries of your property.
Grass cuttings can be a particular problem as they are high in nitrogen and phosphorus, increasing nutrients to beyond levels native plants can cope with. Grass clippings getting into waterways like drains, streams and canals can cause blockages and the extra nutrients released as the grass breaks down can cause algal blooms which lower the oxygen levels in the water harming animals and plants. You can be fined for fly tipping garden waste in exactly the same way as you can for fly tipping a mattress, for example.
If you know who has dumped the waste you should report this too as your evidence may lead to the dumpers being prosecuted. If the land is not owned by WLC we will endeavour to notify the landowner. WLC cannot clear fly tipping from privately owned land.
We keep records of incidences of fly tipping and this can help to allocate resources in the best way. We can't do this effectively if it is not reported every time.
There's no excuse for fly tipping!