Fly-tipping and littering

Fly-tipping is against the law

Fly-tipping is 'the illegal/unlawful deposit of any waste onto land with no licence to accept waste'. It includes anything from general household waste to fridges, sofas, mattresses, garden waste, rubble and tyres.  

If you leave large items, builders’ waste, cardboard/boxes of waste, and multiple bags (including recycling bags) alongside street recycling points, you are fly-tipping.

If you’re caught, you could be fined £400. If you don’t pay your fine or persistently fly-tip, you can be prosecuted and fined up to £50,000 in court.

It is also an offence to permit fly tipping on private land.

Littering

We aim to reduce the level of littering by providing litter education in several ways and by raising awareness across the borough of the consequences of unlawful littering.

If one of our authorised officers has witnessed you dropping litter in a public area, you will be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). This includes small items like cigarette ends and chewing gum, as well as larger items of waste.

You have 14 days from the date of issue to pay the fine. If you do not pay within 28 days, the case will be heard in court, where you could be ordered to pay a fine of up to £2,500 plus costs.

Report it

If you discover a fly-tip you should visually inspect the site, but do not touch it or disturb it.

You can report it in the following ways:

We remove any fly-tipped waste, except from private land, within 72 hours of it being reported.

Spotted someone fly-tipping?

Help keep Islington clean. If you spot someone fly-tipping, report it to our anti-social behaviour team so we can catch them out. Please provide as much detail as you can.