Illegal Tipping and Site Occupation

There were 67,000 incidents involving commercial waste in 2021/22, accounting for 6% of total incidents. This was an increase of 9% from the 62,000 incidents reported in 2020/21. There were 33,000 incidents of commercial waste in black bags and 34,000 incidents of other commercial waste in 2021/22.

There are also cases where longer term fly tipping of an area has become a problem with areas that are remote being favoured for this illegal activity, wooded areas and remote back lanes adjoining farmers land has become the haunt of such activity, monitoring remote locations can be a problem due to connectivity and also coverage.

Fly tipping can quickly destroy an area of natural beauty or an area where walkers favour, most of illegal fly tipping is from residential properties, but equally some comes from industrial activities such as building and renovations where some toxic substances such as paint and other materials can be dumped having an adverse effect on the wildlife.

Case example

A large client contacted Iprosurv to asses the possibility of using drone technology to asses two sites one where travellers established themselves illegally and broken in to a secured site, on a commercial location and where facilitating the dumping of waste within the confines of the security fencing.

The site had previously been occupied by travellers who caused in excess of £100.000 pounds worth of damage and a cleanup bill in excess of £50.000.

A new occupation by another group of travellers who were starting to cause damage to the ground surrounding the unused offices, but had also broken into the office and caused damage inside and to the outside structure.

Traditional methods

Traditional methods would be to monitor the situation with manned guards or cameras, manned guards can be expensive and are at risk of physical abuse when trying to carry out enforcement of any illegal activity, a more costly solution is permanently fixed cameras although these have their limitations with connectivity and can be damaged in remote areas, they can also become redundant once people know of the camera and move a few hundred meters to carry on the fly tipping activity.

Technology -led methods

With the ability to take off and land from a distance takes the need for personnel to endanger themselves on site, on this occasion the drone took off from remote location and flew over the site at irregular intervals or when a vehicle containing waste approached.

with the ability of zoom cameras the drone is able to read and record personnel and vehicle registration plates for later use by authorities.

Incorporating high power spotlights and thermal technology also enhances the capability of the drone.

THE RESULTS

In both cases the media was delivered to the client within 72 hours from instruction to completion and data delivery.

Case Example 1 resulted in the leaving of the travellers and also the successful delivery of data that could be used for prosecution.

The client was able from the data be able to make a cost estimate for cleanup and also arrange for extra security and cameras to be deployed to site.

Case example 2 is an ongoing case and will take approximately 3 years to assess cleanup and plan added security, due to the drone flying an automated mission the same flight plan can be flown every month with the same results so the client can monitor the illegal fly tipping.

SAVINGS

Cost saving on the two cases were the reduction of personnel required on site to gather information, there was also the benefit of keeping personnel safe on site.

Benefits

Quicker to deploy than traditional methods (Usually 24hrs)
Advanced data collection (3D modelling)
Cost saving (normally 75% cheaper than traditional methods)
Reduction in health and safety issues
One data set multiple uses
One data set shared with multiple stakeholders
Simple and repeatable
Reduced business carbon footprint
Enhanced decision making

Drones in your business

Introducing drone technology into your workflow can have many benefits, whether you want a complete outsourced solution and letting Iprosurv manage the operation from our own drone pilot network.

Or if you prefer to train your existing workforce to use drones in their everyday operations and take some or all of the work in-house, Iprosurv are here to help you identify use cases, quick gains, cost cutting, business gaps that drones can fill immediately, training, compliance and continued support.

We have helped over 100 businesses introduce drones into their workflow.