Rise in 'tipper lorry' fly-tips is disturbing says Keep Britain Tidy as figures released

Today’s fly-tipping figures, published by Defra, show a one per cent decrease but, tragically, this still means that more than one million incidents blighted our environment in 2022/23.  

The statistics reveal local authorities in England handled 1.08 million fly-tipping incidents, down from 1.09 million in 2021/22.

While an overall decrease, however small, is to be welcomed, it is disturbing to see that the number of 'tipper lorry load’ size or larger incidents has increased by 13%. 

42,000 (around 4% of total incidents) were of “tipper lorry load” size or larger, up from 37,000 in 2021/22, costing local authorities in England £13.2 million to clear in 2022/23, compared with £10.7 million in 2021/22.

At a time when councils are going bust, these unscrupulous businesses are making profits by destroying our environment and passing on what should be their costs of disposal to councils.  

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “It is time for the public and our justice system to say ‘enough is enough’ and tackle the selfish vandals who are trashing our environment for profit. 

“The public can play their part by ensuring that they only give their unwanted ‘stuff’ to reputable, licensed waste carriers who will dispose of it correctly and the courts must help by using the considerable sentencing powers they have order hefty fines and even jail ‘professional fly-tippers’ when they are caught. 

“Environmental crime is not a victimless crime – we are all victims of it.” 

The most common size category for fly-tipping incidents in 2022/23 was equivalent to a “small van load” (31% of total incidents), followed by the equivalent of a “car boot or less” (27%).

60% of fly-tipping incidents involved household waste – but 653,000 incidents reported in 2022/23, a decrease of 3% from 671,000 incidents in 2021/22.

The most common place for fly-tipping to occur was on highways (pavements and roads), accounting for 40% of total incidents in 2022/23 - number of highway incidents was 433,000, a decrease of 7% from 464,000 in 2021/22.