Picked up a flytipped item, what should I do?

[Fulbe]

I found a broken sink in an alleyway near our house. Being a responsible citizen I carried it home and tried to take it to the tip. Once there they told me I would be charged £8 because it's 'rubble'. I refused to pay it, but what else can I do?

AIBU to think of putting it back in the alleyway?

If you put it back in the alleyway it would be classed S fly tipping if someone catches you. Tip seems like your only option really!

post on your local FB group saying you found it littering the alley and could any kind person let you drop it in their skip. Or smash it up and put the bits in your bin for the next few weeks. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That's a bit shit! No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. Do you know someone having a new bathroom or something put in? With a skip handily placed outside their house?

We have a council app where you can report fly tipping and they’ll remove it (fix my street), do that?

also works for dead animals and graffiti and stuff

Offer it on Facebook/Freecycle/Gumtree as a garden planter. You might even get £10 for it!

Report it via fix my steet and the council will collect

I've had the same experience with tyres dumped on the verge next to my house :-(

It's a crappy lesson but you'll have to pay to get rid of it.

Always photo and report flytipping to the council and councillors. Don't take it with you.

Thanks everyone for the advice!

If fix my street doesn't work, do your council do free bulky waste collections? Ours will pick up 5 large items or 15 bags of garden waste every 2 months for free, the. It's £5 per collection for any extras.

And you wonder why fly tipping happens, these sort of council rules practically encourage it

It's not Council rules though. The tip is for household waste and ceramic sinks are classed as construction waste / rubble. There are Government plans to change this so Council's have to accept rubble free of charge but then the costs of builders getting rid of bricks etc will come out of your Council Tax.

Wow - our council charges £40 per year to collect garden waste and £35 for a one off (up to three) bulky items!

Don't use fix my street (all those similar apps just delay reports getting to the right people and some councils don't action them because they don't always contain the right information or even get to the right council), report it directly to your council as fly tipping. But yeah, despite your good intentions unfortunately it's complicated things so I think you need to tell them you removed it for safety reasons and although it was dumped in X location, they can collect it from you.

i often use fix my street
they report to the council
and job is done

Could you put it in your garden as a plant pot

Just smash it and put it in rhe bottom of pots

Not all Council's. Ours will take anything but you cannot enter the tip in a van, so if it fits in a normal car, you can tip anything. I find it really odd that some tips seem to only accept general household waste?

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo do you live in leicester city council area by chance??’

Wow what council is that?

What's it made of?

Metal? Leave it out for the tat men or take it to a scrap metal merchant.

Ceramic? Smash it into smaller pieces and put it in the rubbish.

I do!

The bulky waste thing is a really good service. We have a new fridge coming today and the council coming tomorrow to collect the old one and some other stuff so we've been able to avoid the £30 installation and removal fee that Curry's would charge.

Always take a picture and report to the council. And don’t ever bring any fly tipping home with you.

Unfortunately, fly tipping is on the increase and it’s up to the council to sort out.

I would put it back where I found it. Even if technically illegal, nothings actually going to happen. Not morally wrong under the circumstances.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo I thought so! It’s one of the best services in the country I’d say.

we just moved from Leicester City to Harborough district and really struggling without our weekly collection of bin and orange bags or bulky collection. You have to pay for green waste too!