Are you are doing a refurbishment project, or have you just accumulated a large amount of non-hazardous waste on your property? If so, it is only understandable that you want to hire a skip and remove it as quickly and cheaply as possible. For that reason, many people just look at who is offering the best price and go with them irrespective of what happens to it after.
But we would always advise customers that when checking prices, they also take time to check the credentials of the company who will be removing your waste. It is a sad fact of life that within the waste disposal industry there are certain companies that will dispose of your waste illegally to avoid paying costs associated with the process. If the skip hire company in Sheffield, you decide on dumps your waste illegally on public or private land you could end up being implicated.
Here at Dixons Skips we have been providing legally compliant skip hire in Sheffield for many years. However, our years of industry experience tells us that illegal tipping is becoming more common making more important than ever for customers to protect themselves.
Fly Tipping is on the Rise in Large cities across the UK
Fly tipping has been an issue in the UK for many years and according to the latest statistics it appears that the problem is escalating. The fact that fly tipping on a commercial scale has doubled in the last 6 years has led to local authorities spending close on £60 million in an attempt to combat the problem. However, that appears to be the tip of the iceberg as the overall cost to the national economy is thought to be around £600 million a year.
Here in Sheffield the local authority estimates that the cost to clear large tips has risen to £5000,000 annually. Over the last year around 15,000 incidents of fly tipping were reported in the Sheffield area alone. Obviously not all these were specifically large-scale tips however a significant percentage were, highlighting a problem that is becoming all too common. It is an issue that is mirrored in almost every major city in the UK, with areas of Manchester and London being the worst affected.
One thing to be aware of though is that the figures relate to reported incidents as opposed to actual offences. Along with which certain incidents may have been counted twice meaning that the figures are slightly lower than reported.
Irrespective of this the significant rise in numbers indicates that fly tipping is still a very real problem throughout Britain. What has become apparent is that the problem is not solely due to ad hoc dumping by individual home or business owners. Fly tipping is now carried out on a much larger scale by organised criminal gangs for profit. This has led to an official from the environment agency describing fly tipping as the new narcotics.
How do Fly Tipping Gangs Operate?
In many cases organised gangs will portray themselves online as a genuine waste disposal business as a way of attracting customer interest. Once they have successfully acquired your business, they will generally just collect your waste transport it to an open space and dump it. In some cases, for example if it is a larger job, they will attempt to illegally gain entrance to private land such as large agricultural spaces to dump large amounts of waste. The cost of cleaning up this sort of organised fly tipping can run into thousands of pounds.
As the gangs get more confident some of them have started hire warehouses or farm outbuildings from farm or business owners. Then once they have dumped enough waste to fill up the building, they disappear leaving the owner with the cost of legally disposing of the waste. In a case reported earlier this year one landowner fell foul of a gang to the tune of £1 million after they illegal dumped 5 tonnes of wate in his warehouse.
The type of crime can have a far wider reaching effect on communities as this type of organised criminal gang will often have links to more violent crimes such as slavery, drugs and firearms. This link is one of reasons why the authorities are taking a much more hard-line approach to the gangs and anyone seen to be assisting them however unwittingly.
Since 2019 local authorities have had the power to impose penalties on anyone using unlicensed waste disposal companies even if they are unaware, they have done so. If any waste, you pass on to an unlicensed carrier is found to be fly tipped you are liable to be fined up to £400. So if you are checking out the best prices for skip hire in Sheffield be certain that you check out the legitimacy of any skip hire company before making your final decision.
Why you can trust us at Dixons Skips in Sheffield
Here at Dixons Skips are aim is to offer you not just the best possible price for skip hire in Sheffield but to give you peace of mind that your waste will be disposed of legally. That way you can be sure that there will be no ramifications for you later down the line. As a fully licensed skip hire company in Sheffield Dixons Skips offer our customers an industry leading service.
For an efficient, cost-effective and totally legal waste disposal service for commercial and domestic customers contact the team at Dixons Skips today.
