A fine waste of time: One in 1000 fly-tippers in the West Midlands pay a fine

According to the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs, West Midlands councils suffered a total of 74,070 fly-tipping incidents in 2023. To help reduce this illegal dumping, the Government recently changed the maximum on-the-spot fine that a council could set for fly tipping offences from £400 to £1000. As a result, many councils have been announcing a shift to the new maximum.

However, analysis of DEFRA’s data by rubbish removal marketplace LoveJunk suggests these increases will have little effect. LoveJunk found that in 2023 local authorities in the West Midlands issued a total of 3,617 fly-tipping FPNs, which was equivalent to 5% of all fly tip incidents. Only 0.1% of those FPNs were ever paid.

“Tracking down offenders and then enforcing payment is challenging and expensive. So, increasing the maximum penalty by a few hundred pounds is unlikely to change anything,” says LoveJunk’s founder, Jason Mohr.

“The simplest way to reduce fly tipping is to stop giving rubbish to fly tippers. And the easiest way to do that, is for people to only use a licensed waste carrier and never pay for the service with cash. Ensuring a waste collector is registered with the Environment Agency and paying for your collection by card means there is a clear money trail to a registered entity. This makes it almost impossible for illegal operators to remain anonymous and without anonymity fly tippers cannot survive.”

LoveJunk is an online marketplace for licensed rubbish removal. Their app has over 100,000 downloads and is recommended widely by councils. Learn more at www.lovejunk.com.

See full report, including council by council analysis at https://www.lovejunk.com/fly-tipping-report/