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Wednesday, 19 October 2022

Waste Jobs



Fly-tippers regard fines as 'business expenses' as government approach to waste crime criticised by MPs

Rather than cracking down on illegal activity, the government's approach is closer to "decriminalisation", the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said...

The targets set in place four years ago by the Environment Agency to tackle waste crime are moving at a "slow and piecemeal" pace, with some measures such as the digital tacking of rubbish still in the pilot stages, the report found.


The digital tracking of rubbish might sound like a route towards more bureaucracy. That's because it is.

Policy paper Mandatory digital waste tracking

4 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Mandatory tracking of travellers would be a far better idea.

A minor road near us was a favourite spot for fly-tipping. There was a lay-by with an entrance to a field, and every couple of months I would see a huge trailer-load of stuff dumped. Definitely clearance from homes: rubble, old furniture, sheets of glass, smashed-up kitchen and bathroom units. The landowner obviously got sick of it and put up a lockable barrier so they couldn't pull off the road for the midnight unloading. He should have got word to the perpetrators, though. A couple of weeks later there was the latest load spread a couple of hundred yards along the road.

Penseivat said...

As these scumbags invariably use vehicles to commit these offences, then Shirley they are going equipped to commit crime. A burglar, who is arrested, isn't given his crowbar and screwdriver back, so why are these flytippers allowed to keep those vehicles? I understand that, in France, any vehicle used in crime, including drink driving, is seized and sold, with the proceeds going to Police funds. Any seized vehicle which does not belong to the offender is not considered a matter for the Police to resolve. If this happened in the UK, it may concentrate some minds somewhat.
Penseivat

A K Haart said...

Sam - in our experience, nobody seems to have the stomach for tackling travellers. Our chimney sweep told me about his contact with travellers when looking around for a replacement van. He and a motor mechanic friend went to look at one which had been advertised locally and it turned out that a traveller was selling it.

The back of van was full to the roof with hawthorn trimmings and the guy selling the van said - "oh you can just dump them anywhere." The motor mechanic friend said the van was two vehicled welded together anyway, so he and the sweep just left after lots of abuse from the traveller.

A K Haart said...

Penseivat - I agree, go for the vehicles. Years ago, there was some attempt to catch these people using hidden cameras at likely dumping locations and a number of people were caught. If the vehicles were confiscated automatically, then as you say it would concentrate minds.