The Council is teaming up with Keep Britain Tidy for ‘Fight Fly-Tipping Fortnight’, a campaign warning residents about criminal waste traders who use convincing, professional-looking online ads to pose as legitimate businesses – only to illegally dump the rubbish they are paid to take away.
Fly-tipping costs councils across England millions of pounds every year in clean-up costs, draining money that could otherwise be spent on essential local services.
The campaign calls on people in North East Lincolnshire to protect themselves and their communities from falling for a #RubbishDeal – low-cost, unlicensed services offered using appealing ads on social media by organised waste criminals. Rogue waste traders hide in plain sight behind professional-looking adverts, ‘five-star’ reviews and tempting prices, making it difficult to tell them apart from legitimate operators. What they don’t tell you is where your rubbish could end up.
Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight is helping residents know what to look out for and make simple checks before handing over their rubbish to avoid it being illegally dumped on streets, fields and public spaces.
The Council is supporting Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight by calling on households to take three simple steps to avoid a #RubbishDeal:
- Ask for a waste carrier licence
- Check the number on the Environment Agency’s public register at https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers or call 0300 065 3000)
- Check you’ll get a receipt and, if possible, don’t pay until they have provided a genuine document that can be verified, to avoid fakes. Real waste disposal companies will do this without fuss. Pay using a card, not cash, so the payment can be traced and get a proper receipt for that also, on headed paper with the company details clearly printed.
Residents looking to get rid of items can also use the Council’s bulky waste collection scheme which gives people who aren’t able to get to the tip the chance to get rid of their unwanted items. For more information and to book a collection, visit Bulky waste collections | NELC
Councillor Darren Mayne, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Recycling and Energy, said: “Fly-tipping takes a real toll on communities like ours. In North East Lincolnshire, fly-tipping is damaging the places people live in and care about and leaving our teams to clear up the mess.
“Every fly-tip also comes at a cost to the service and ultimately the tax payer too. That’s why stopping waste from being dumped in the first place matters so much.
“Our teams work tirelessly to tackle the problem, but we need our community’s help to stop it at the source. No one wants to think that the person they’ve paid to take away an old sofa, mattress or pile of household rubbish could simply dump it somewhere else in their community. But rogue waste traders are making money from doing exactly that – leaving councils and residents to deal with the consequences.
“We’re asking our residents to make three simple checks before handing over their rubbish: ask to see a waste carrier licence, check it on the Environment Agency register and get a receipt. It only takes a few minutes and can help protect you, your community and our local environment from fly-tipping.”
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive Officer at Keep Britain Tidy, added “Local authorities see first-hand the damage fly-tipping causes, working every day to clear illegally dumped waste and protect the places their communities value. Tackling the problem places huge demands on already stretched council teams, which is why we’re so pleased to have North East Lincolnshire supporting Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight this year.”
“People hiring someone to take away their rubbish should be able to trust that it will be disposed of responsibly. But rogue waste traders are exploiting that trust, taking people’s money and then leaving their waste dumped in streets, fields and public spaces for communities and councils to deal with.
“What makes this particularly difficult is that criminals can be surprisingly hard to spot. A convincing advert, good reviews and a cheap price can make an illegal operator look like a legitimate business, leaving people thinking they’re paying for their rubbish to be responsibly taken away when it could end up dumped in their own community.
“Our message is simple: don’t fall for a #RubbishDeal. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight will run from 12th – 25th October 2026, with local authorities across the country joining forces with Keep Britain Tidy to highlight the scale and impact of fly-tipping and educate residents on how to protect themselves and their communities.
For more information and to report fly-tipping, visit Fly-tipping | NELC
About Keep Britain Tidy
Keep Britain Tidy is a leading environmental charity. We set the standard for the management of parks and beaches, inspire people to be litter-free, to waste less and live more sustainably. We run campaigns and programmes including the Great British Spring Clean, Love Parks Week, Buy Nothing New Month, Eco-Schools, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces and the Blue Flag/ Seaside Awards for beaches. To find out more about Keep Britain Tidy, our campaigns and programmes visit www.keepbritaintidy.org.
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