Your waste - your responsibility!

  • Published
  • By Staff Reports
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Whether you are getting ready to leave for your next assignment or just spring cleaning, there is no doubt you will find yourself with plenty of waste to dispose of.

Sometimes it seems the easiest thing to do is to hire someone to take it all off your hands. However, you need to check carefully that the company you employ is registered. Locally, people have been prosecuted for the illegal dumpling of waste - or "fly tipping", as it's called in the U.K. - even when they have already paid someone a substantial amount of money to dispose of the waste for them.

Fly tipping is a criminal activity that can cause serious pollution of the environment, may be a risk to human health and can harm wildlife and farm animals. It spoils our local neighborhood and quality of life, costing landowners and the taxpayer an estimated $200 million every year to clean up. Illegal dumping of waste costs local authorities $88 million each year to clear up and undermines legitimate waste management companies who are undercut by illegal operators. Important information about fly tipping and what to do if you wish to report an incident of fly tipping can be accessed here.

As a householder, you have a responsibility to ensure that any waste removed from your home or garden is disposed of properly and legally. You are required to take reasonable steps to ensure that any person employed to remove waste from your property is authorized by the Environment Agency to dispose of waste.

If you call someone from a local telephone directory or an advert in a magazine, or if someone calls at your house offering disposal services, you should ask to see their certificate of registration which includes their waste carrier number. Alternatively, contact the Environment Agency on 08708 506506 and ask for a Waste Carrier Validation check or visit their website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/publicregister.

If waste removed from your home is found to have been "fly tipped," you could be prosecuted. There will often be tell-tale clues in illegally dumped waste that allow it to be traced back to its original owner.

Remember, as a householder you can dispose of your household waste free of charge at your local Household Waste Recycling Centre. In the immediate area surrounding Lakenheath and Feltwell, collection points are located in the town of Thetford in the Burrel Way industrial estate and just off the A1065 north of the five-way roundabout. Additional sites are open on Depot Road in Newmarket and on Rougham Hill off the A134 in Bury St. Edmunds.

Alternatively your local district council is able to offer a collection service of a variety of bulky household items. There is normally a charge for this service. Details can be found on council websites:
www.breckland.gov.uk/content/flytipping
www.forest-heath.gov.uk/info/587/refuse-flytipping/68/fly_tipping
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/environment/recycling/

Hopefully when the time comes for us all to move on, we'll leave behind only good memories rather than piles of unsightly junk.