Hull City Council is teaming up with Keep Britain Tidy for ‘Fight Fly-Tipping Fortnight’, a campaign aimed at raising awareness of criminal waste traders.
Fly-tipping costs councils across England millions of pounds every year in clean-up costs, draining money that could otherwise be spent on essential local services.
In Hull, the council cleared up a total of 14,954 incidents in the past year, costing local taxpayers thousands in clean-up costs.
The campaign calls on people in Hull to protect themselves and their communities from falling for a #RubbishDeal – low-cost, unlicensed services offered using appealing ads on social media by organised waste criminals.
Rogue waste traders hide in plain sight behind professional-looking adverts, ‘five-star’ reviews and tempting prices, making it difficult to tell them apart from legitimate operators. What they don’t tell you is where your rubbish could end up.
Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight is helping residents know what to look out for and make simple checks before handing over their rubbish to avoid it being illegally dumped on streets, fields and public spaces.
Hull City Council is supporting Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight by amplifying the campaign across its social media platforms, calling on households to take three simple steps to avoid a #RubbishDeal:
- Ask for a waste carrier licence
- Check the number on the Environment Agency’s public register at https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/search-waste-carriers-brokers or call 0300 065 3000)
- Make sure you ask for and get a receipt
To support the campaign, Hull City Council is also reminding residents of the range of services available to dispose of their waste legally and responsibly.
The services include:
- For large items residents can use the bulky household collection scheme. Households are eligible for one free collection per year of up to five items which can include cookers, dishwashers, fridges, mattresses, sofas etc. Any additional collections are £5 for up to five items.
- There are three household waste and recycling centres located across the city, open every day from 10am – 5pm, which residents can use free of charge. All are modern facilities, designed to maintain and improve recycling within the city.
- White electrical goods in working order can be donated and/or collected free of charge to be sold at a discounted price in the Reuse Electrical Shop – a joint initiative with Dove House Hospice, ERYC and FCC Environment that aims to keep white goods in use for as long as possible.
The council also offer a competitive commercial waste service, to find out more visit Commercial waste – Hull.
Councillor Charles Quinn, cabinet portfolio holder for environment at Hull City Council said: “Fly-tipping takes a real toll on our communities. It blights the places people live and work, leaving our teams to clear up the mess.
“Every fly-tip also comes at a cost, taking money and resources away from other essential council services. That’s why stopping waste from being dumped in the first place matters so much.
“Our teams work tirelessly to tackle the problem, but we need our community’s help to stop it at the source. No one wants to think that the person they’ve paid to take away an old sofa, mattress or pile of household rubbish could simply dump it somewhere else in their community. But rogue waste traders are making money from doing exactly that – leaving councils and local residents to deal with the consequences.
“We’re asking our residents to make three simple checks before handing over their rubbish. It only takes a few minutes and can help protect you, your community and our local environment from fly-tipping.”
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive Officer at Keep Britain Tidy, said “Local authorities see first-hand the damage fly-tipping causes, working every day to clear illegally dumped waste and protect the places their communities value. Tackling the problem places huge demands on already stretched council teams, which is why we’re so pleased to have Hull City Council supporting Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight this year.
“People hiring someone to take away their rubbish should be able to trust that it will be disposed of responsibly. But rogue waste traders are exploiting that trust, taking people’s money and then leaving their waste dumped in streets, fields and public spaces for communities and councils to deal with.
“What makes this particularly difficult is that criminals can be surprisingly hard to spot. A convincing advert, good reviews and a cheap price can make an illegal operator look like a legitimate business, leaving people thinking they’re paying for their rubbish to be responsibly taken away when it could end up dumped in their own community.
“Our message is simple: don’t fall for a #RubbishDeal. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight will run from Monday 12 October to Sunday 25 October 2026, with local authorities across the country joining forces with Keep Britain Tidy to highlight the scale and impact of fly-tipping and educate residents on how to protect themselves and their communities.
For more information about fly-tipping, visit Fly-tipping | Hull
To report incidents of fly-tipping, visit Fly-tipping | Hull, or alternatively call 01482 300 300.
