To end flytipping stop charging for waste disposal

Among the many things that Brexit will enable us to do is deal with the problem of flytipping. We will be free of the EU's rules on how much waste must be recycled and we can go back to doing what is sensible - sticking it in holes in the ground:

Last month the government announced the worst fly-tipping figures on record; nearly one million incidents in England last year. Two thirds consisted of large household waste that the council used to take away. More than a third of farms were hit by fly-tipping last year, according to the National Farmers Union. The Country Land & Business Association says fly-tipping is now its members’ greatest concern. Farmers and property owners have to pay for the clearance of land, which is especially costly when asbestos has been dumped. Struggling local councils spend nearly £1 billion a year picking up rubbish from roadsides.

It is indeed a problem and it is also a growing one. In fact, it's been growing ever since we were all taxed into recycling more and taxed into not sticking rubbish into holes in the ground:

 Truckloads of refuse are being deposited at night, weighing up to 20 tons. Some of it comes from organised gangs, often working with the building trade; the “industry” is estimated to be worth £1 billion a year, because a 20-ton load would cost £2,000 to deposit legitimately at a landfill site. Some comes from homeowners who can’t face the charges for house clearouts.

This is just simple economics. Raise the price of something and people will do less of it. And, quite obviously, more of something else. Raise the price of disposing of waste at the council dump and more people will flytip. There is no mystery as to what is happening here:

This month the government published its first litter strategy, with increased fines and more bins.

Nope, that's not the way to do it.

The 5p plastic bag charge has proved their first success. One suggestion has been a tax on nappies 

Nor is that.

Another idea was a bottle return scheme

Nope.

Increasingly ministers and civil servants are talking about “extended producer responsibility”. In other words, companies need to take ownership of their discarded products rather than taxpayers. 

Drivel.

Companies also need to be encouraged to start selling more durable goods again. 

Nonsense.

The problem is that people are flytipping because we have made legitimate waste disposal more expensive. The solution is to make legitimate waste disposal less expensive and people will then stop flytipping. This isn't brain surgery folks, there is nothing difficult here.

Licence some more landfills, drop the landfill tax and fling open the gates of the council dumps. The problem will vanish overnight.

As is so often true the solution to he problem is not for government to do more it's for it to stop doing what it is.

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