Written statement (Wales): Update on litter and fly-tipping - July 25

Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Littering and fly-tipping is a blight on our communities. It costs money to remove and damages our environment. Yet it is completely avoidable, and everyone stands to gain from a clean and safe environment.  

Tackling the problem is not just a matter for Government - we all have a role to play in ending throwaway culture. From those making single-use products, to how people use and dispose of them, we continue to place prevention at the heart of our littering and fly-tipping policies and legislation.

We are working with communities, businesses, organisations and local authorities to provide cleaner and greener natural spaces to improve people's mental and physical well-being. 

Today I am highlighting continued progress delivering against our aims of reducing waste, encouraging positive behavioural change through education and awareness raising, strengthening enforcement action and supporting our partners in dealing with these issues.  

Single-use plastic products make up a significant proportion of litter on our streets, parks and seas. 

The introduction of The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Wales) Regulations 2024 and The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wet Wipes) (Wales) Regulations 2025 will immediately reduce the significant environmental damage caused by these products.  On 1 January 2025 regulations to reform the UK wide packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (PER) scheme commenced and I recently provided an update on our Deposit Return Scheme (DRS)..

Whilst legislation can provide an effective deterrent, it cannot operate in isolation. We continue to provide grant funding to partners such as Keep Wales Tidy and Fly-tipping Action Wales who work with organisations and communities to help educate and encourage positive behavioural change.   

Fly-tipping Action Wales continue to work with local authorities to improve the quality and robustness of the annual data published on Stats Wales.  This gives local authorities a better intelligence picture and improves their understanding of the types of incidents that are occurring so they can work with communities to target specific hot spots.

By gathering evidence on environmental offences and understanding why they are being committed, we can ensure the correct interventions are introduced to prevent them from occurring. To improve the quality of the data we are working with local authorities and organisations such as Keep Wales Tidy and Fly-tipping Action Wales.

Enforcement can be complex and challenging. Fly-tipping Action Wales continue to support local authorities with their investigations, including providing access to free legal advice from specialist environmental lawyers and offering dedicated enforcement officer support. In North Wales, there have been successful enforcement outcomes on land managed by Natural Resources Wales, through close partnership work with North Wales local authorities and North Wales Police. This has included a ‘stop and check' operation targeting waste carrier vehicles who were operating without a waste carrier licence.

In rural areas, Fly-tipping Action Wales has worked with the Welsh Government's Wildlife and Rural Crime Co-ordinator to share information amongst enforcement agencies. This has helped support partners in tackling fly-tipping on agricultural land. However, we recognise more needs to be done and this year our funding has enabled Fly-tipping Action Wales to expand its enforcement capabilities with the recruitment of a new Enforcement Officer for South Wales. 

In 2024, we funded Keep Wales Tidy to develop a new litter survey methodology. The Geospatial Litter Analysis (GLÂN) tool expands on the existing litter data and monitoring system to better reflect the scale and scope of litter and related issues.  An area greater than 1 million metres squared has been surveyed so far this year.

Keep Wales Tidy have supported 328 community groups, through their Volunteer Support Hub Caru Cymru and third sector organisations, with 1,334 registered litter champions and 245 litter hubs. The Community Impact Map highlights the scale of the tireless activities of volunteers across Wales to improve their local environment and encourage others to take action. They also provide a wide range of practical support which includes environmental education programmes and setting standards for parks and beaches. Initiatives such as Climate Challenge Cymru help support young people to respond to various environmental concerns. 

Waste attracts waste. Preventing its illegal disposal in the first place is critical. In 2024-25 Keep Wales Tidy worked with local authorities on more than 500 occasions on practical improvements to local neighbourhoods. Litter focus groups were held in each local authority to bring together Keep Wales Tidy, local authority staff, local organisations and volunteers. The forums helped identify litter and fly-tipping hotspots and led to targeted clean-ups and local campaigns. Local authorities have updated local services such as cleansing regimes as part of this ongoing work. 

We continue to work with local authorities to identify and promote examples of good practice and consistency when tackling poor local environmental quality. I believe that continuing to work with local authorities, businesses, private landowners, third sector organisations and communities, we are laying the foundations for preventing littering and fly-tipping in Wales. 

This statement is being issued during recess to keep Members informed. Should Members wish me to make a further statement or to answer questions on this when the Senedd returns I would be happy to do so.