Fly-tipping in Reading has halved in the last two years, according to the council’s latest figures.

Reading Borough Council (RBC) is aiming to increase its recycling rate from 32 per cent to 50 per cent by the end of 2020.

Fly-tipping rates in Reading last year were the lowest in the last five years by some way.

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Councillor Sophia James, lead member for Neighbourhoods and Communities, revealed the statistics at Monday’s Policy committee (November 18).

Rubbish dumping incidents shot up by 18 per cent in 2016/17, from 2,596 incidents to a huge 3,066.

They dropped back down to 2,509 in 2017/18 and then fell to 1,574 last year.

In the first half of 2019/20 there have been 822 incidents, suggesting there will be a similar number of incidents to last year.

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A Recycling and Enforcement team has recently been established, with four new staff members recruited.

Cllr James said the team will start issuing fixed penalty notices to community protection notices to those committing environmental crimes from mid-December.

The new team has six officers: a team leader, four recycling and enforcement officers and a part-time communications officer.

The team aims to increase the recycling rate by four per cent each year to help the council to reach its target of 50 per cent recycling by 2020.

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Other aims include:

  • Reducing the cost of waste
  • Reducing contamination in recycling bins
  • Carrying out enforcement activity for environmental crimes including fly tipping
  • Engaging with residents on the doorstep to increase understanding of recycling
  • Supporting the introduction of food waste collection and smaller general waste bins from October 2020