Colchester City Council cleared 1.65 tonnes of waste from the A12 over three nights, beginning 27 October.
The council made use of overnight road closures, enabling them to safely work at the roadside to collect a large amount of fly-tipped waste and littering.
Street Care and Safety operatives began with lay-bys that the council are responsible for, moving onto the four-mile stretch of A12 between Junction 28 and 26, London bound, for the remaining two nights. The fly-tipped waste consisted of old tyres, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard and old signage, adding up to the same weight as a large family car!
This effort complements Keep Britain Tidy’s “Fight Fly-Tipping Fortnight” – a new campaign aiming to crack down on rogue, unlicenced, operators and help locals protect themselves and their community from fly tipping crimes.
Fly-tipping costs councils across England millions of pounds every year in clean-up costs, draining money that could otherwise be spent on essential local services. In Colchester, the council cleared up a total of 4,332 incidents in the past year, costing the council, and therefore local taxpayers, over £85,000.
The campaign asks residents to do their best to protect themselves and their communities from criminal waste operators. It aims to shine a spotlight on criminal operators, who lure people in with cheap deals, only to illegally dump household waste on streets, fields and public spaces. Households can take a few steps to ensure their waste is disposed of properly: ask for a waste carrier registration number, check it on the Environment Agency’s public register here (or call 0300 065 3000) and check you’ll get a receipt.
Cllr Martin Goss, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Neighbourhoods and Leisure, said: “Fly-tipping has an impact on all of us and is a deep source of frustration. Not only is it a blight on our local environment, it costs taxpayers thousands in clear up costs. This is money that could be spent on other important services.
“Our teams work hard to tackle fly-tipping and littering, and they do a fantastic job, but we need our community’s help to stop it at the source. We’re asking people to check who they pay to take rubbish away. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is, and sadly it’s our residents and communities who ultimately pay the price.”
Fight Fly-tipping Fortnight will run from 10-23 November 2025, with local authorities across the country joining forces with Keep Britain Tidy to highlight the scale and impact of fly-tipping, educate residents on how to protect themselves and their communities.
Residents are also welcome to join local litter picking events with Colchester’s Litter Warriors - a council-supported initiative that enables residents to help maintain a clean and green city by litter picking in their local areas. More than 600 Litter Warriors are already making a difference, and anyone interested in joining can register by emailing community.volunteers@colchester.gov.uk. Volunteers receive a litter picking kit and guidance on how to get involved.
For more information on fly-tipping regulations and how to report incidents, visit: www.colchester.gov.uk/fly-tipping.
Page last reviewed: 18 November 2025