The Environmental Protection Act 1990 states that every householder is responsible for disposing of their waste responsibly and lawfully.
Apart from our household waste collection teams emptying your bins, you should only allow businesses which are 'legally registered to carry waste' to dispose of your rubbish.
Household waste collection rules
The council determines when and how your rubbish is collected. Sometimes we'll serve legal notices reminding residents of these arrangements. Anyone failing to follow the correct procedures may be issued with a fixed penalty ticket. Ensure that:
- your rubbish is in the right container – bags or bins
- you avoid putting outside waste with your bin or extra bags if you use bags for your collection. Read more about what you can do to dispose of extra waste
- you only put your rubbish out after 7.00pm the evening before collection and by 7.00am on the day of collection, check your bin day in the waste collection calendar
- you know where to put your rubbish
- you remember to put your bins and recycling boxes back onto your property the same day as collection
If you're experiencing problems with rubbish being put out incorrectly, contact the Neighbourhood Enforcement team on telephone: 01904 551555 or email: neo@york.gov.uk.
Residential Waste Presentation Offences - Section 46 Environmental Protection Act 1990
Residential waste presentation offences include, but are not restricted to:
- not presenting your waste or recycling for collection at the correct time
- not presenting your waste or recycling in the correct receptacle
- not returning empty waste/recycling receptacles into the curtilage of your property between collection times
If we have written to you under Section 46 Environmental Protection Act 1990
If we have served you a Notice under Section 46 Environmental Protection Act 1990 this means that we suspect that you/or people in the locality are not complying with the council’s requirements when presenting waste. Correct waste presentation will be detailed in the Notice.
If we find that, within 12 months, you are continuing to fail to present waste in line with the councils’ requirements, it is likely to be a nuisance and detrimental to the local amenity and we will write to you again, the reasons will be outlined in the letter.
Any further non-compliance can result in the issue of a Civil Penalty Notice.
Residential Waste Enforcement Process
The council will issue the following as part of its enforcement procedure under Section 46 Environmental Protection Act 1990:
Stage 1 - Advisory letter with written notice
How and where to present your waste and relevant for a period of 12 months.
Stage 2 - Written warning
Explains how you have failed to comply with waste presentation requirements, the period by which this should be remedied and the consequences of not remedying.
Stage 3 - Notice of Intent (to issue a Fixed/Civil Penalty Notice)
This sets out the grounds for which the council is proposing to issue you with a Civil Penalty Notice, the amount of that notice and your rights to make representation against its issue.
You are able to make representation to the council, explaining why you feel you should not be issued with a Civil Penalty Notice. This must be done within 28 days.
The criteria the council will use when assessing your representation are set out below.
How you can make such a representation to the council will be set out in the Notice of Intent.
Stage 4 - Issue of a Final Notice incorporating a Civil Penalty Notice
This will set out the grounds requiring you to pay the Civil Penalty Notice, how and when it should be paid and consequences for non-payment.
The Final Notice and Fixed/Civil Penalty Notice set out how you can appeal against payment by making a First Tier Tribunal application.
Grounds for making representation against the issue of a Civil Penalty Notice
Cases where a Representation would be considered favourably include, but are not limited to, instances where you can demonstrate that:
- no offence was committed
- the person had exception under the law
- the offence was committed by someone else
- the offence wasn't the fault of the person against whom the notice was served, and there was nothing they could do to prevent the offence
- we shouldn't have served the notice because the offender is under 18, or is physically or mentally incapacitated, or has some other incapacity that prevents them from understanding that they committed an offence
- there are significant extenuating circumstances that temporarily affected the ability of the person to comply with the law
- there has been a procedural impropriety
There are a range of reasons where representations will not be considered, and these include:
- ignorance of the law - the test would be whether a reasonable person would be aware that an offence had been committed
- you didn't know an offence had been committed - the test would be whether a reasonable person would have known what had happened
- you couldn't prevent the offence - the test would be whether a reasonable person could have taken steps to prevent the offence occurring
- the offence was only minor - this is why a Civil Penalty Notice is issued for this offence, as opposed to prosecution in the magistrate’s court for more serious offences
- it’s not in the public interest to pursue the offence - although this is a minor offence, it is something that concerns local residents and the council needs to respond to these concerns by making sure that everyone behaves responsibly. Poorly presented domestic waste can also attract pests. The council spends a lot of money cleaning the streets, and anything we can do to stop such offences helps us to do this more effectively
Crime not to care
Find out about our #CrimeNotToCare campaign and how, if your waste is dumped illegally by someone else, the law states that you could be held responsible for fly-tipping and face prosecution.
We're raising awareness on:
- disposing of your waste responsibly
- cracking down on fly-tippers and rogue traders
Reducing fly-tipping
We regularly monitor known fly-tipping 'hot spots' on a weekly basis.
We place CCTV in problem areas, and anyone caught dumping rubbish can be issued an unlimited fine or up to 2 years prison sentence.
Report fly-tipping online to help us reduce this problem.