£60,000 in littering fines handed out on a single day

Waltham Forest Council and its contractor 3GS are tackling littering and fly-tipping head on by hitting offenders who drop rubbish on the borough’s streets where it hurts - their wallet. 

In fact, on a single day this month (22 October), the Council successfully secured prosecutions from the Courts for almost 100 different offences for littering and fly-tipping resulting in fines of almost £60,000. Roughly 7,000 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) have been handed out to offenders since the start of 2024 with approximately 1,000 leading to formal prosecutions so far. 

This comes after the Council raised fines for littering and fly-tipping in February as part of its ongoing commitment to cracking down on this hugely environmentally damaging and socially unacceptable anti-social behaviour. The fine for fly-tipping rose from £400 to a maximum of £750 and the fine for littering also increased from £150 to a maximum of £300. 
 

Councillor Clyde Loakes MBE, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate and Air Quality said: 

We know that the vast majority of residents take great pride in taking great care of our borough and disposing of rubbish responsibly. The Courts handing down £60,000 worth of fines for littering and fly-tipping on a single day is an endorsement of our zero-tolerance approach to dealing with those who treat our neighbourhoods and local environment with contempt when they dump rubbish on the borough’s streets. 

No-one wants to be hit with a large fine or fee but at the same time, no-one wants to see their neighbourhood blighted by other people’s rubbish. 

There is an easy way to avoid an FPN - by simply disposing of litter and household waste properly. Waltham Forest still offers an unlimited free bulky waste collection and still has two Reuse and Recycling Centres, that's currently a more comprehensive offer than any other London borough.  

We have declared a Climate Emergency and tackling the scourge of littering will help protect our local natural environment and increase local recycling rates. Just last week, we strongly backed the Government’s plans to ban unnecessary and unsustainable disposable vapes to help protect children's health and improve the environment.

I’m proud that our ambitious Mission Waltham Forest commitments are delivering for our residents and continuing to provide a blueprint for the capital when it comes to tackling the climate crisis and delivering net zero for by 2030.

There is no excuse to drop litter in Waltham Forest. The Council has more than 2,000 street bins across the borough. Most of these have a section for general rubbish and a separate section for recycling.

Littering carries an FPN of £300, reduced to £200 as an early payment incentive if it is paid within two weeks.

Examples of litter include cigarette butts, which take 40 years to degrade and get pushed around by weather events and water, eventually breaking down into microplastics. These microplastics pollute waterways, impacting human food consumption from seafood and have dire consequences for wildlife.

Residents can report fly-tips in their neighbourhood directly to crews to be cleared using the online reporting tool on the council website.