Waste Carrying and Fly Tipping - Know the Risks
In Ashington we have a serious issue with waste disposal and fly tipping, with over 40 fly-tips being removed by Rapid Response each week, 72,840kg collected from the streets from April to end of October. This is a reactive response to illegal fly-tipping, not a service. It is delivered by Northumberland County Council and paid for by Ashington Town Council, via your precept.
To put this into perspective, 72,840kg worth of rubbish is:
- It's equal to the weight of about 14 adult blue whales. Just imagine a pile of rubbish as big as 14 gigantic marine mammals!
- It's the same as over 3 million standard size cans of baked beans. That would be one tall bean can tower stretching up high into the sky!
- If it was all made up of Lego bricks, you could build over 7 million standard 2x4 bricks with it. You could construct giant Lego skyscrapers and cities!
- It's equal to around 16 full bin wagons worth of rubbish. If you lined up 16 smelly, overloaded wagons bumper-to-bumper, that shows how much rubbish 72,840 kg is.
- You could fill nearly 3 standard sized shipping containers all the way to the top with that much waste. It's a huge pile of junk!
- It's about the same as what 960 average adults weighing 75kg would weigh put together. Just picture a crowded room with 960 people in it - that's how heavy the rubbish is.
To put it into even more perspective:
- It's almost the same weight as the entire pitch at Wembley Stadium filled 1 meter deep with rubbish. Just imagine the iconic Wembley pitch completely loaded with a giant pile of rubbish from the goal line to goal line!
- If you piled all 72,840 kg onto the pitch at St James' Park (Newcastle United's stadium), you'd have a small mountain of waste about 2 meters high across the entire field. The players would have a tough time kicking the ball through that!
- If you took all 72,840 kg of waste and dumped it onto the pitch at the Stadium of Light (Sunderland's home ground), you'd end up with a pile of rubbish covering the entire field about 1.6 meters high.
So, in summary, that's a massive load of rubbish - enough to totally blanket some of the most iconic UK football pitches in rubbish up to 2 meters deep or more.
Having rubbish and waste items that cannot go in your normal bins can problematic. While the temptation may be there to cut corners in getting it disposed of properly, it's important to understand the legal and environmental risks of fly tipping. Before you decide that it is rubbish, remember the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra. If you can cut down on waste, you cut down your need to get rid of it.
Fly tipping refers to the illegal dumping of waste and rubbish in public areas instead of using proper waste disposal methods. It's a major problem that continues to spoil our community, wastes time that could be better spent doing more visually appealing work, and is a health and safety risk.
If you have extra waste and rubbish to dispose of, resist the urge to have someone take it away without the proper licenses and assurance that it will be disposed of legally. Some disreputable individuals may offer cheap collection services but then simply dump the waste illegally. This fly tipping allows them to make money while passing risks and consequences to others.
Instead, make sure anyone collecting your waste is a legally certified and licensed waste carrier. Ask to see their license and certification credentials first. A legitimate, professional waste carrier will dispose of materials through approved channels and landfills, documenting that the waste has been properly processed and disposed. You can check on the DEFRA website for any licence provided at Results of searching Waste Carriers, Brokers, and Dealers (data.gov.uk)
The penalties for fly tipping and using unlicensed waste carriers can be substantial if caught and prosecuted. Fines and even prison sentences have been handed down for serious violations. Just as importantly, we all pay the price for cleaning up illegally dumped materials and waste.
Do your part by only using licensed waste carriers, getting receipts and documentation, and reporting any instances of suspected illegal fly tipping. The short-term savings of looking the other way rarely pay off in the end. It takes a pride in place from all of us to stop this dangerous practice threatening our communities and environment.
Let’s change this together, and ensure our rubbish and waste are collected and disposed of properly so we can continue to live in a clean and safe Town.
