Going back to my comment last week about how difficult it is to ‘switch off’ from work when supposedly on a break from it, I got chatting to a builder over Christmas who was helping out a vulnerable elderly neighbour I was visiting. I learned that as well as running his own building company, he uses his skills to help support vulnerable local people on behalf of a national charity. He’d done a great job for my neighbour and as he was leaving was about to load a broken plastic toilet seat and lid, other hard plastics, waste cardboard & some plastic packaging into his van. Knowing that, as a van driver, he’d be charged a fee when taking everything to the local civic amenity tip despite some of it resulting from his charity work, I suggested he leave this lot for me to recycle on his behalf. 

  

A discussion on illegal dumping ensued. He told me about competitors who regularly dump truckloads of waste in a quiet road near a junction of the M25 near us. He agreed that there’s simply no excuse for this type of behaviour and ventured that to ensure we all dispose of building and other waste responsibly, our councils have to make it easier and cheaper, rather than more difficult and more expensive, for us to do so. I told him that I’ve been saying the same for years, and that a particular bugbear of mine is that these tips are often now closed a couple of days a week, with shorter opening hours on the days they're operational - creating difficulties for those who go out to work and leading to longer queues, too. We agreed that while some councils aren’t actually encouraging the illegal dumping of waste, they’re making it far easier for the less upstanding citizens amongst us, to shrug our shoulders and say: “To hell with it”. 

  

With the costs of clearing up what irresponsible residents and tradespeople have dumped, and the dangers to local folk and wildlife posed by dumped waste which may be contaminated with broken glass and other sharp objects, toxic fluids etc., the system’s ripe for another change, don’t you think?