Fly-tipping: Causes, Incentives and Solutions - Keep Britain Tidy

Fly-tipping: Causes, Incentives and Solutions
than that, there seems little more that local waste disposal authorities could do
to improve matters. Overall, 79% of those interviewed said that the experience
of taking rubbish to the local tip was either very easy or easy. Only 9% rated it
as difficult or very difficult. Although the number of fly-tippers is small, their
views of the local tip do not differ greatly from this overall picture. Perhaps this
explains why such a small proportion of people with waste to dispose of do so
by fly-tipping.
Table 5.3: Householder rating of local tip
Very good
(%)
Good
(%)
Neither
(%)
Quite poor
(%)
Very poor
(%)
Don’t know
(%)
Distance 43 44 6 4 1 1
Opening times 35 45 8 3 1 8
Queuing 22 44 17 12 3 3
Vehicular
51 35 5 4 2 3
access
Staff help 34 34 17 5 2 8
Capacity 39 43 7 4 1 5
It is interesting that three times as many people were tempted to fly-tip as
went through with it. The reason so many people do not give in to the
temptation seems to be because they are a mainly decent, law-abiding group
for whom it is likely that any risk of being caught is a sufficient deterrent.
When waste disposal facilities appear to be on the whole very good, it seems
simply not worth the risk.
Table 5.4: Reasons for not fly-tipping, by gender
Male
(%)
Female
(%)
Total
(%)
Would not knowingly break the law 51 29 43
Fear of being caught 39 53 44
Did not want to harm the environment 37 24 32
Legal disposal method became
29 34 31
available
The opportunity did nor arise 4 12 7
Discouraged by police operations 4 - 3
Discouraged by council action against 4 - 3
fly-tippers
Other 7 - 5
5.3 Interviews with offenders and waste producers/carriers
This section describes the issues that emerged from interviews with ten
convicted fly-tippers and ten waste producing and handling businesses. The
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