What is a tragedy for many becomes yet another opportunity for the criminal few. One consequence of the Covid-19 lockdown has been a surge of fly tipping in many areas of the UK (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/26/uk-campaigners-call-for-action-to-tackle-surge-in-fly-tipping-during-covid-19-lockdown). Mountains of dangerous waste have been dumped on remote sections of road and in the countryside. This is presumably because there are fewer people to check on this illegal activity (there are just fewer people around to see what is happening). The waste can end up costing hard-pressed councils hundreds of thousands of pounds in clearance costs. It can also be a further health hazard. It has even been suggested that, with the closure of many recycling sites, some fly tippers have been offering to clear (for a price) materials for people who cannot do this for themselves. They claim that the material will be disposed of in environmentally appropriate ways (they even boost their charges using this argument) but, of course, have no intention of doing anything that cuts into their ill-gotten gains. Sadly, the persons paying the fly tippers can still be held to be legally responsible for the environmental damage and the costs of clearing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment