In a recent episode of the BBC series “The Apprentice”, one team had the genius idea of producing ‘greeting’ cards to promote environmental issues - such as minimising waste! The irony of the scheme actually had to be pointed out to them before they could see it.
I wonder how Norwich City Council would fair in Sir Alan’s boardroom if they went along to explain their new initiative, launched last month, which involves adding to unsightly fly-tipping with a range of garish orange and black labelling!
The range includes stickers, plastic bags and cordoning tape – all produced with the intention of encouraging people to stay away from incidents of fly-tipping, and to inform people that the illegal dumping has been noted by the council and is under investigation.
Norwich City Council’s Environmental Protection Officer, Emily Capps, said: “The stickers have several purposes - they will indicate that the environmental protection team are aware of an incident of fly tipping, they may help jog someone’s memory and help bring forward potential witnesses, and will also highlight where waste has been incorrectly disposed of. They also carry the important message that people shouldn’t touch fly-tipped materials.
Similarly, the bags we have introduced are to contain waste that may have escaped from plastic sacks or may spread around the area if we don’t do something about it. They are biodegradable too which means that we are doing our bit in terms of waste minimisation.”
Where do I start? Well, to be fair, doing anything about the persistent problem of fly-tipping is better than doing nothing at all. But this scheme seems a little flawed and begs the obvious question: if public money is going to be spent on the man-hours involved in sending people to the site and on materials to highlight and contain it, why not just spend that money on removing the waste?
Nobody could dispute that the most serious implications of fly-tipping are the potential health dangers and pollution, but a big factor is the terrible eye-sore it creates, which is present in all fly-tipping even if it doesn’t pose any threat. Is it really a great idea, then, to add brightly coloured orange stickers into the mix? Is this really what local people suffering the consequences of fly-tipping want their taxes spent on? Or would they prefer to see it removed rather than added to?
People more cynical than me might well suggest it was a bit of a PR exercise, with the focus on ensuring the council are seen to be doing something about it, rather than on resolving the effects of fly-tipping in the most efficient way.
