Help us to keep St Helens Borough clean & tidy by correctly disposing of your waste.
Fly-tipping, or illegal dumping of waste, is an unsightly blight on our local community that causes harm to the environment and can be costly to clear away. Fly-tipping also includes leaving items next to bins or recycling banks, or outside closed household recycling centres and charity shops.
Baby rats found in fly tipping
Rats, Mice and insects love the environment that fly tipped rubbish and furniture creates, and once they have made themselves at home and start breeding, they can multiply at an alarming rate. If a female rat gives birth to around six litters of up to 12 baby rats each year and these babies start reproducing when they are 10 weeks old, the original pair that snuggled up in an abandoned sofa can become over 1,000 in 12 months.
The problems that can create Include infections such as leptospirosis, hantavirus, rat-bite fever and a type of meningitis, which can be transmitted to people. Not the type of environment we like to live in.
Despite their short lives, house flies are extremely (re)productive with females able to lay up to 500 eggs over a three-to-four-day period. They are attracted by food waste and rubbish feeding across different food sources and causing cross contamination.
House flies are estimated by the World Health Organization to transmit around 65 diseases. These include salmonella, E. coli 0157 and campylobacter which can cause food poisoning, which can result in severe diarrhoea and vomiting and occasionally, more serious complaints.
As well as providing the prefect breeding ground for rats and insects, shared rear entries full of discarded items are a fire hazard and can prevent fire service crews from gaining access in an emergency.
What to do to make sure you don't break the law when:
You pay someone to dispose of your waste
It applies to everyone involved in handling the waste from the person who produces it to the person who finally disposes of or recovers it. You can easily check if someone has a waste carrier's licence online.
Some people aren't aware that the following actions are NOT acceptable ways to dispose of waste. These actions are anti-social, damaging to our environment and against the law:
Used social media to find someone to remove her waste for her - read Kate's story.
Left his fridge on the footpath outside his house hoping that the Scrap Metal van would collect it - read Paul's story.
Dumped bags of rubbish she wanted to get rid of, in the alleyway at the back of her house - read Mo's story.
Report a fly-tipper
If you witness someone fly tipping in the St Helens Borough please call the Police and report it as a crime in progress. Residents can also help by reporting all instances of fly-tipping to us, whether you witnessed the fly-tipping take place or not.
Please let us know about fly-tipping here or by calling 01744 676789. Sending us information and evidence helps us to find and prosecute those responsible.
Dumping waste anywhere, such as in a field, an alleyway, a street corner or a lay by is against the law - just ask David!
Our removal of fly-tipping
When our crews go out to pick up reported fly-tipping, they may have to visit the sites more than once, depending on what has been fly tipped, for instance it could be household waste and a fridge. These will be picked up separately by our crews due to how they need to be disposed of, it may even be on a different day, so if you have reported fly-tipping and you see our crew only taking half of it, this may be the reason, we will return.
