Revealed: the weirdest items fly-tipped in Nottingham
Fly-tipping is a big problem for councils across the UK. In February 2017, the chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy called fly-tipping an ‘epidemic’ that has reached crisis levels.
In Nottingham meanwhile, fly-tipping has been decreasing over the last few years. In 2016, Nottingham City Council collected 5920 fly-tips, compared to 7746 in 2015 and 8902 in 2014.
A major factor in helping reduce fly-tips in the city is the book online or telephone free bulky waste collection service that Nottingham City Council offers to all city residents. The scheme sees clean crews working around the city to collect unwanted household items that won’t fit in household bins. The most common items that are collected are sofas, fridges, mattresses, washing machines and TVs.
Top five weirdest items fly-tipped in Nottingham
A boat
A fruit machine
A leg of ham
A time capsule
A wheelchair
In 2015, Nottingham City Council collected 50,000 bulky waste items – and in 2016, it was a staggering 60,000 items. That’s 164 items every single day.
As fly-tips in Nottingham have decreased over the past three years, the numbers of people reporting them to Nottingham City Council has gone up – thanks to increased publicity of our online reporting tool. In 2016, we had just under 5000 (4994) reports from the public letting us know about fly-tips, compared to 3945 in 2014.
Sally Longford, portfolio holder for neighbourhood services at Nottingham City Council, said: “Let’s be completely clear – leaving items, whether it’s outside your property, next to a bin, or in an alleyway, is illegal fly-tipping – Our Community Protection Officers will fine fly-tippers £300 on-the-spot, or they could face a fine of up to £50,000 in court.
I’d urge all Nottingham residents to take advantage of our brilliant free bulky waste collection service instead – and help us to keep Nottingham a clean and lovely place to live.”
