Fury as student fly-tippers turn city streets into rubbish tips: Bins in Manchester and Liverpool overflow with end-of term waste as undergraduates move out and head home for the summer
- Huge piles of rubbish are littering city streets as students go home for summer
- Universities are urging and helping students to get rid of waste responsibly
- Liverpool councillor Nick Small said it is ‘unacceptable and selfish behaviour’
Anger is growing over scenes of rubbish dumping and fly-tipping in areas of cities such as Liverpool and Manchester as university students head home for the summer.
Images of huge piles of rubbish and overflowing bins have been pictured in different parts of the cities that have high levels of student housing.
Many university students have left or are in the process of leaving their properties and heading home for the summer holidays.
Most students do not stay in the same house for more than one year at a time, meaning they must move out all of their items in one go before going home for the summer – and can leave piles of rubbish or unwanted possessions behind them.
Earlier this week the Liverpool Echo featured a shocking image of mess left by fly-tippers in Woodcroft Road in the Picton area, where students have been vacating their properties.
This rubbish heap was left behind in the Kensington Fields area of Liverpool as students moved out of their properties for the summer
As well as rubbish bags, items of furniture and bedding have been building up in the Everton area of the city as students ditch items they don’t want to take home with them
At a second site in Kensington Fields, which has a large student population, bins were quickly filled up and items dumped at the side of them instead
Liverpool city councillor Nick Small reported on some grim scenes in the Kensington Fields area of his ward, on the outskirts of the city centre. Kensington is an area known for having a high density of student housing.
Sharing a number of images of fly tipping, dumping and overflowing bins in the area, Cllr Small said: ‘This is completely unacceptable and selfish behaviour from a minority of students.
‘We’ve been working hard with our three universities, student unions and Liverpool Student Homes on educating students about what they need to do when they move out.
How illegal fly-tipping gangs operate
Fly-tipping gangs have been around for at least a decade but their numbers are growing thanks to lax enforcement of the law, a report this week has suggested.
The gangs work by running unlicensed and unregulated waste disposal services which fly-tip the waste rather than disposing of it legally – avoiding landfill taxes and undercutting legitimate waste disposal companies in the process.
The fake companies attract customers online by posting competitive prices.
They have been known to hire out buildings to dump their clients’ waste, costing local authorities tens of millions of pounds in clean-up costs since as early as 2012.
Once the buildings are filled to the brim with rubbish, the gangs disappear and leave it up to the landowner or council to sort out.
Others have begun renting land to bury lorry loads of trash, while others break into private property.
‘The universities are funding community skips so there’s no need for this. We’ve had to ask for the council to bring in extra waste collections.’
He tweeted his thanks to the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Hope University who he says have helped fund community skips to be used by students moving out of their accommodation.
Meanwhile Liverpool Streetscene, a subsidiary of Liverpool council responsible for waste collection and recycling, said the scenes of dumped rubbish were ‘upsetting to see.’
It added on social media yesterday (June 30): ‘Streetscene Officers & cleansing teams all attended Kensington Fields today. This area is now clear.’
Another major mess was reported in the Everton area in Liverpool. The images were sent in by a group of local residents called the Everton Community Action Group.
A spokesperson for the group said: ‘We currently have ongoing issues with waste and vermin as a result of rubbish being left. The waste pictured has been left for three weeks.’
Meanwhile in Manchester similar scenes of abandoned rubbish are appearing around the city.
Dozens of rubbish bags, items of furniture and carpets have all been pictured in the Withington area of the city, where many students live.
Manchester University told its students on its website: ‘Please make sure that you dispose of all your unwanted things responsibly; don’t just leave things in street, hoping they’ll be collected.
‘This is fly tipping and is illegal. There are so many easy ways to get rid of your things – including free council collections and charity collections as well as regular refuse collections.’
Withington residents told Manchester Evening News the area had turned into a dumping ground.
Charity shops have reportedly stopped taking donations due to the surge in demand as students try to get rid of items responsibly.
Julie Colville, who has lived in Withington for 28 years, told the site: ‘It’s heartbreaking. We have to live with this all summer.
‘My garden is right next to the alley, and when the bins are overflowing I get flies and I can’t enjoy my garden.
‘They think they’re doing okay because they’re throwing it in a bin, not realising that the bin then can’t be used for what it’s supposed to be used for.’
Withington residents of south Manchester were left fuming by rows of overflowing bins left behind as students moved away for the summer
Most students only live in the same house for one year, meaning they have to clear out all of their belongings and waste before they leave
City councillor Becky Chambers said: ‘As councillors we know that the end of year clear out does cause a number of issues for local residents and we have been working with the council and universities to mitigate the impact of this.
‘Students are being encouraged to recycle waste rather than binning it and we have been in the area reporting any instances of fly tipping we have found.’
Liverpool’s universities have also been trying to cut the amount of rubbish left behind after students leave the city. The University of Liverpool have launched a Leave Liverpool Tidy initiative with the British Heart Foundation alongside its community skips.
It allows students to leave all reusable items at drop-off points around the city, for them to be passed on to others in need.
This also applies to food items, which will then be passed on to local food banks.
The scheme accepts all items with limited exceptions: duvets and pillows, broken ad dirty items, knives, hangers and underwear.
A report in April warned that organised waste crime groups in Britain are costing local councils millions of pounds per year by fly-tipping rubbish for cash, with increasingly lax punishments allowing ‘cowboys’ to ‘take us all for a ride’. (Pictured: Graph shows increasing number of fly-tipping incidents in England)
In April of this year MailOnline reported on a new report released to try and tackle fly-tipping, which included information on so-called fly-tipping gangs, who are paid to take people’s rubbish away – but then dump it illegally.
The report said organised waste crime groups in Britain are costing local councils millions of pounds per year by fly-tipping rubbish for cash, with increasingly lax punishments allowing ‘cowboys’ to ‘take us all for a ride’.
There has been a dramatic 95 per cent fall in waste crime prosecutions since 2007 and a tendency not to issue formal sanctions even when the Environment Agency does take action, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
Meanwhile, the increase in landfill tax rates has encouraged more organised crime groups to make money from illegally disposing of waste – with some travelling from England to Scotland to dump often hazardous rubbish in green areas.
Fly-tipping has soared over the last decade reaching more than 1.13million incidents and costing councils £11.6million in 2020-21.
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