More than 100 tonnes of building waste has been found dumped in Herne Bay in the United Kingdom, with locals furious that waste collection companies have used the land to dispose of waste that would otherwise have been processed legitimately.
Local councillor Ian Stockley said that he thinks “there’s over 100 tons of builders’ rubble and soil there.”
“There’s no way this has come out of a car boot. It’s an eyesore and we don’t know what’s in there.
“There’s evidence of asbestos-type sheeting.”
The entrance to the site has been blocked off in an attempt to limit access. The land is privately owned, and expected to be developed into as many as 900 homes.
Cllr Stockley said that “large lorries getting paid to take the waste away are being opportunistic and dumping stuff in dark corners, instead of paying for it to be disposed of properly.”
“A small fine won’t cut it. If a skip operator is found to be doing this, they should be given a fine of tens of thousands of pounds.
“Unless we step up enforcement, this problem is going to get worse.”
A local council spokesman, Rob Davies, explained that the council will investigate, but because the land is privately owned, the landowner will be required to remove the waste.
Illegal dumping, or fly-tipping, is becoming increasingly common in the UK.
Covid-19 saw an estimated 300% increase since lockdown began, according to the Daily Mail.
“It was a perfect storm of people being furloughed, finally getting around to doing DIY jobs they’d been putting off and then finding that recycling centres were closed,” says Richard McIlwain of Keep Britain Tidy.
It’s estimated that more than 30,000 sites cost the local British councils more than £12.8m last year in cleanup costs.
In May, one fire chief in Cumbria described an illegal dump as the worst he had ever seen, with crews having to douse the material in water to prevent the risk of fire.