RCTC say Dispose of your waste with care but cut waste services to just 2 black bags a fortnight
Residents are being urged to ensure they check who they are paying to dispose of their waste – after one Glyncoch man learned an expensive lesson.
Many people are still not aware that they remain liable for their waste. If you pay someone to collect it for you – and they dump it on the mountainside or in a back lane – you will pay the price.
This was the case for a Pontypridd man who paid someone to collect his building waste, assuming it would be disposed of legally. Unfortunately it was dumped at a local beauty spot on a track in Coed Y Cwm.
When officers from Rhondda Cynon Taf Council's Streetcare Enforcement team found the dumped builder’s tonne bag – containing plasterboard, rubble sacks, carpet off-cuts and more – during one of their routine flytipping patrols, they found evidence linking it back him.
As a result, he was charged with failing to control his waste by using an unlicensed waste carrier, an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
He admitted the offence when the case was heard at Merthyr Magistrates' Court and was ordered to pay a £400 fine and £548.77 costs.
This was a costly mistake and, importantly, all of the waste that had been dumped could have been taken to a Rhondda Cynon Taf Council Community Recycling Centre and disposed of safely (and for free!).
The successful prosecution is the latest in a series of clamp-downs by the Council on flytipping and littering.
Enforcement officers patrol the county borough to look for evidence of flytipping and flytippers. Every item that is dumped is checked to see if there is evidence to identify its owners.
This work complements the ongoing ‘Who Done It?’ campaign to identify people the Council wants to speak to in relation to flytipping and littering offences and ‘Sort **it out’, which targets irresponsible dog owners, in a bid to rid streets, schools, play grounds and sports pitches of dog fouling.
Clamping down on such crimes forms part of the wider commitment to creating a greener, cleaner RCT.
The "Choice is CLEAR- Everyone needs to recycle" campaign aims to increase the recycling rate across RCT to meet the Welsh Government target of 70% by 2024/25.
The Council's recycling rate is currently at 64% and more needs to be done. Those who fail to recycle – including waste that can be dealt with at CRCs, such as old paint – will be educated and, if necessary, be subject to enforcement action and a £100 FPN.
There really is no excuse not to recycle, with an unlimited, weekly dry, food waste and nappy kerbside collection service alongside 7 community recycling centres, which take items ranging from mattresses to pop bottles that are open from 8am to 7.30pm, 7 days per week (March-October).
Nigel Wheeler, Director of Highways and Streetcare Services said: "Flytipping is an offence which shows the disregard some people have for our county borough and its open spaces.
"We are living in a time when more care needs to be taken of where we live. Issues such as flytipping, dog-fouling, littering and not recycling are all taken much more seriously as we work to protect the planet.
"We know there are residents who are still unaware of the "duty of care" when it comes to rubbish they have generated. If you hire someone to dispose of your rubbish, and that rubbish ends up flytipped, it's you who faces prosecution."
If residents do employ or rely on a third party to dispose of their waste on their behalf they are advised to check that they do so legally or that they are a registered waste carrier and have the relevant licences in place.
For more information on Recycling and Community Recycling Centres in RCT follow the Council on Facebook/Twitter or visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/crcs
