Dumped Rubbish (Fly tipping and littering)

Fly-tipping is illegal dumping of liquid or solid waste on land or in water. The waste is usually dumped to avoid disposal costs.

Reporting a Fly tip

Details on who to contact to report fly-tipping can be found below:

  • Roads - if a fly tip is blocking part or all of the road, please report it to Hertfordshire County Council via the Highway Fault Reporting Form on the HCC website or by calling 0300 1234 047.
  • Rivers, streams or canals - if the rubbish is in or by rivers, streams or canals, or on their paths or banks, please contact the Environment Agency on 0800 807 060
  • Private Land - please contact the landowner as it is their responsibility to deal with the fly-tip. We don't remove fly tips on private land but if you report it to the Council, using our Report Fly-Tipping Form, we may assist in identifying the land owner.
  • Public Land – This is generally anywhere that is not covered by the above bullet points. Please use our Report Fly-Tipping Form to tell us about the Fly-tip.
Report fly tipping

East Herts Council Officers now wear bodycams whilst patrolling and throughout investigations. For further details on our data protection policy , please see our Licensing and Enforcement Surveillance Privacy Notice.

In your report please include as many details as possible, including:

  • location and type of rubbish that has been dumped
  • details of vehicle that dumped the rubbish (if possible)
  • description of the people involved (if possible)
  • Please do not touch the fly tip or remove any items from the waste.
     

If you witness fly tipping actually taking place call the Police on 999.

If you need assistance to complete the form, please see our Contact Us page for ways of getting in touch.

Every householder or business has a responsibility to make sure that the person taking their waste away has an Upper Tier Waste Carrier Licence, this must be in date and checked on the Environment Agency website, this starts with the letters "CBDU". 

An Upper Tier Waste Carrier Licence allows a person to transport other people's waste, Lower Tier only allows them to transport their own waste.

  • You MUST obtain a receipt/waste transfer note and this needs the name and contact details of the company including a telephone number, their waste carriage licence number, what they are taking away, where its being taken and how much paid they were paid.
  • It is a good idea to write down their vehicle registration number of the vehicle being used to remove your waste.
  • Failure to check their licence and have a receipt is a criminal offence, which could result in you being fined or prosecuted for failing in your Duty of Care.
  • Always use a registered waste carrier or register to carry your own waste. To check if your carrier has a registered licence, please see the Environment Agency website.

Every business that produces waste in the UK has a legal 'duty of care' to:

Please see our Trade Waste pages for more details

Littering

Littering is the act of irresponsible people who drop or leave small amounts of waste in public places, or by discarding it from vehicles. It can be anything from a cigarette stub to a small bag of rubbish.

For more information please see Fly-tipping and Littering FAQs page.

We empty the majority of litter bins across the District.  If you have seen a full or overflowing bin, please take your litter home and report via our overflowing bin page. The same applies to Dog bins and these can be reported on the same page.

 

The Hertfordshire Fly Tipping Group

For more information, please see the Hertfordshire Fly Tipping Group, a multi-agency taskforce including the Boroughs, Districts and County Council as well as the Police, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Herts Fire & Rescue, the Environment Agency, the National Farmers Union and Keep Britain Tidy which has come together to improve how Hertfordshire responds to fly tipping.

If you have further questions on fly-tipping or littering - please visit our queries page.

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