Litter, flytipping and enforcement
In Tower Hamlets we all want to enjoy safe and clean streets.
Last year (2023/24) there were 6,700 reports of fly-tipping in the borough. The estimated cost of clearance, disposal and investigation of those reported fly-tips was over £2million.
In May 2024, the council increased the fixed penalty notice (FPN) for fly tipping to £1000 from £400 – the early payment discount is £500.
If you need help with enforcement due to irresponsible behaviour by others please contact us and ask someone from our Environmental Services Team to visit you.
Reporting a flytip
Please don't:
- touch the waste - it may contain syringes, toxic chemicals or other hazardous substances
- disturb the site - there may be evidence that could help identify the fly-tippers and lead to their prosecution
Please do:
- visually try to work out what the waste consists of and how much there is
- take note of the day, date, time and exact location
- report it on the Find It, Fix It app (available to download on Apple App Store and Google Play) or online.
If you see someone fly-tipping, take note of:
- how many people are involved and what they look like
- what has been tipped - how much and what it looks like
- details of any vehicles involved including make, colour and registration number if possible
Be very careful. Remember that flytippers are doing something illegal and do not want to be caught – they are unlikely to welcome people observing them. Do not approach them or put your own safety at risk.
How you can get involved
The Find it, Fix it service will tackle eyesores across the borough. In rapid response vehicles, the teams identify and fix problems such as littering, graffiti, fly posting, overhanging vegetation and fly tipping. Residents can report problems, including littering, for the Find it, Fix it team via Streetline on 020 7364 5004.
Volunteering and community clear-ups
You can register to be a Clean and Green volunteer and find out about other volunteering opportunities with the council.
The council's commitment to reducing litter
Litter is unsightly, illegal and can be dangerous. To assist you to get rid of items responsibly and reduce litter on the streets, we provide litter bins on public highway locations across the borough. These are regularly emptied by our street cleansing contractor.
The maximum fine for littering is £2,500.An offence is committed if someone throws down, drops or otherwise deposits anything in any place (including in water) that is open to the air and to which the public have access. Cigarette butts and chewing gum are defined as litter as well as other items commonly dropped such as sweet wrappers and newspapers.
Anyone seen littering in the street will be issued with a fixed penalty notice (FPN) of £500 by a Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officer. The FPN is issued so that you may discharge your liability for prosecution by paying the penalty and knowing you will not receive a criminal record. However, if you do not pay the FPN, the case will go to court.
See what what ones of our enforcement officers does each day to help keep the borough clean:
Flytipping
Flytipping (dumping rubbish on a street or other area) is an offence which carries an unlimited fine and up to five years imprisonment, or both. It is also an offence to allow someone to fly-tip on your land or if a vehicle registered to you is used to fly-tip, the owner is ultimately responsible.
We keep the streets safer and cleaner by removing tips of rubbish that have been dumped on public land, roads and pavements. We aim to remove reported flytips on the highways by the end of the next working day. However, if the tip is very large or contains hazardous materials, this has to be reported to the back office for investigation. If so, this may take a little longer to deal with.
The responsibility to remove fly-tipped waste on private land rests with the landowner or their managing agents.
In addition to removing fly-tips from public land we try to trace the origin of the waste and may take enforcement action.
How to make sure you don’t fly tip
Residents can find out about their recycling, waste and bulky waste collections. Under the domestic waste 'Duty of Care', householders are now responsible for ensuring that their rubbish is only passed on to authorised waste carriers. It is a criminal offence if you do not take all reasonable measures available to you to meet your duty of care. You could face prosecution and, on conviction, a fine and criminal record. You may be given a fixed penalty notice of £600 for breaching the duty of care.
Businesses in Tower Hamlets must ensure they have a contract with a registered waste carrier. If you are disposing of business waste at a tip or landfill, then you will have to pay a gate fee and the site must be licensed to take commercial waste. If the waste you're transporting as a business is your own waste you will need to be registered as a waste carrier with the Environment Agency. Find out more and register as a waste carrier.
Tower Hamlets Council offer businesses a commercial waste collection service.
Residents and businesses can drop off rubbish or recycle a wide range of materials at the Reuse and Recycling Centre.