Lockdown caused a shift in litter behaviour. Many may have thought that with people having to stay at home that the amount of litter would have decreased but that sadly was not the case. The U.K saw beaches covered in litter as people visited to get their hour of exercise a day, fly tips became more and more common as people spent time doing work to their home and as the world began to open up again, environmental crime was on the increase.
In this episode of the LAS podcast our Managing Director Michael Fisher speaks with John Roberts, Solutions Director for LAS to discuss the Lockdown Litter Report which was produced in conjunction with ClearWaste.
'''I believe that in the pandemic we've seen a massive change in the way that the majority of people saw litter. As people started to spend more time outside in local green spaces, there were able to see the amount of litter that they may have walked past before.''
The Lockdown Litter report highlighted some shocking stats. Reports of incidents of illegal dumping rocketed by almost 350% since the first lockdown compared to before the Coronavirus pandemic. May 2020 saw the biggest rise in reports of fly-tipping – a staggering 526% increase on February 2020's total - the last full month before the first lockdown began in March when most council-run recycling centres were closed. Although most tips reopened after the first full lockdown ended, many continue to operate with restrictions including only being open to people who pre-book a slot.
As Michael and John work through the document they highlight the fact that Kingdom Local Authority Support are passionate about stopping these kind of environmental crimes and how they are working to bring these shocking numbers down.
''Without a change, these figures are only going to increase and that is why we believe so passionately that our officers have a fundamental part to play in ensuring that we can keep all of our natural beauty areas and our cities cleaner, greener and safer.''