Littering and Fly-tipping

Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 3:31 pm on 14 March 2023.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:31, 14 March 2023

Absolutely, Andrew. Obviously, it is a matter for the local authority, and I hope you've reported it to them. I actually have myself raised the slip road, as it's called, with Cardiff Council, in a recent meeting with the leader. We are doing a number of things. We've got Fly-tipping Action Wales, for example, working in partnership at the moment with Rhondda Cynon Taf to catch fly-tippers, using surveillance on Natural Resources Wales-managed land, and Keep Wales Tidy, through the Welsh Government-funded Caru Cymru project, works with local environment groups and the police to target litter hotspots caused by anti-social behaviour, and then to prosecute the people responsible. 

I'm very keen to highlight the prosecutions, because I think there is a deterrent effect of that. If you open the black bags, we can often find those responsible, and trace it back through the litter. We've been encouraging local authorities to do that; we have an action plan to do that. As I say, we're doing the behaviour change thing. That behaviour change goes for businesses as well. It's not just the people who tip it, is it, it's the business who actually asked for their rubbish to be disposed of in that manner. So, there are behaviour change programmes for commercial waste and businesses as well. 

That will ramp up as we bring in the new recycling targets for businesses and so on, because this is valuable recyclate; it's not just litter. This is valuable material that we can use as part of our circular economy effort, because we're beginning to attract really serious reprocessors here to Wales, because of the high-value recyclate we have. That material is, to my mind, not just unsightly litter; it's actually wasted raw material that can be used. We need to get that attitude out there into the public, but we also need to prosecute those people who do the things that you've just mentioned, because I couldn't agree more—it's both unsightly and environmentally hazardous, and we need to get that point across.