Educate fly-tippers with ‘waste awareness courses’, councillor suggests

Fly-tippers and other waste offenders could benefit from going on an awareness course similar to speeding drivers, a senior councillor has suggested.

Cllr Yvonne Forsey, Newport City Council’s cabinet member for climate change, said litter-picking and visits to recycling facilities could help teach people to dispose of their waste correctly.

Newport City Council has since confirmed Cllr Forsey was speaking hypothetically and there are no plans to introduce what she called “waste awareness courses”.

Discussion

Her suggestion, shared during a council meeting this week, came amid a discussion on the best way to drive down rates of fly-tipping.

“If you get caught speeding, you might be sent on a speed awareness course,” Cllr Forsey told the meeting. “I would suggest if you get caught with excess waste offences, then you should be sent on a waste awareness course.

“My suggestion for a waste awareness course is that you spend one day picking up litter, that you visit the very excellent WasteSavers education room – soon to be opened – where you can learn about how glass, plastic, metal and paper can be recycled.

“Then I think you should have a visit to the incinerator to see how the residual waste is processed, and then I think you should follow that up with a visit to WRAP, to see how much recycling currently in our residual bins can actually be recycled if people sort it and put it in the right places.”

Fly-tipping capital

WRAP Cymru is a Cardiff-based charity working “to support the Welsh Government’s environmental goals”.

Newport claimed the unfortunate crown of Wales’ fly-tipping capital last year, recording more incidents of illegal waste dumping in 2023/24 than any other local authority.

The council had “significantly intensified its efforts to combat fly-tipping” since, Cllr Forsey told the meeting.

That work has included “extensive” investigations, the use of cameras, checks of waste carriers’ licences, the issuing of fixed penalty notices, and prosecutions “in the most severe cases”.

She said the council’s efforts “have proved successful”, including a 1000% increase in the number of fixed penalty notices issued this year, compared with 2023/24, and a nearly threefold increase in prosecutions.

Cllr Forsey added: “The best way to deter bad behaviour is to increase the likelihood of being caught, and we’ve increased the likelihood that waste offenders will be caught.”

Cllr Will Routley asked how many “covert cameras” the council operates – and suggested the council should “invest in more” if there were only three available, as he understood there to be.

“The more people we deter, detect and prosecute and fine, the better overall outcome we will all achieve,” he told the meeting.

Cllr Forsey said she believed there to be more than three cameras available to the council.

Meanwhile, Newport City Council said officers visited 310 households in January to deal with excess waste issues, carry out bin audits and give advice.

Residents can report fly-tipping incidents via the council’s website or by calling 01663 656656.