Illegal Dumping of Waste & Fly Tipping

14 January 2019

Illegal Dumping of Waste & Fly-Tipping

In 2018, the Scottish Roads Partnership and our operations contractor Amey carried out routine cyclic maintenance, including the removal of litter and waste materials from our roads network on the M8, M73 and M74 Motorway Project area. This ‘littering - risks road worker’s lives’ as it requires our road operatives to work adjacent to live traffic on fast roads. Fly-tipping can adversely affect communities as it can make streets and open spaces look neglected as well as attract anti-social behavior such as vandalism, fly posting and littering. All of this contributes to the decline of an area and increases the fear of crime. It can also affect trade, tourism and investment in the area.

We work alongside the Keep Scotland Beautiful Campaign and would like to remind everyone to act responsibly with the message ‘Give Your Litter a Lift’ and take it home. Last year, we picked up various types of litter, including tyres, pieces of wood, metal and general household waste, including paper, tins and fast food packaging.

In 2018, Amey filled 2,834 bags and uplifted 1,971 large objects from the motorways and special roads. This equates to around 14 tonnes of bags and 9 tonnes of objects removed from our motorways. This does not include litter picked up by the relevant local authorities who are responsible for the clearance of litter on ‘A’ class roads, including the A8 Baillieston to Newhouse route and the A725 Bellshill Bypass.

We have constructed 18 kilometres of foot and cycle ways during the new motorway project, with more access roads made available. This has created an issue with illegal dumping of larger items of unwanted furniture, other domestic rubbish, including some commercial waste. On several occasions, we have found illegally dumped asbestos sheets, a hazardous material that presents a serious risk to public health. Asbestos also presents a genuine risk to our operatives, who must quarantine the immediate area and call in a specialist removal firm for a clear-up operation. This all comes at a cost to us, the local authority and taxpayer or private land owners involved.

If you witness fly tipping please do not approach the offenders but contact the relevant local authority with the following information if possible, e.g. description of the people and registration number of the vehicle involved, in order that they can pursue the incident. Your request will be treated in confidence. You can report the illegal dumping of rubbish to your local authority via their own website using the following links:

North Lanarkshire Council – Telephone 01698 403110 or using following link - http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=31095
South Lanarkshire Council – Online only using the following link http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/info/200233/street_care_and_cleaning/344/fly-tipping
Glasgow City Council - Telephone 0300 343 7027 or use the following link - https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17179

Any individual or business who fly tips anything on council or private land is committing an offence and could face a fine of up to £40,000.

Please help Keep Scotland Beautiful.