Fly-tippers leaves piles of waste at Diss bottle bank

Fly-tippers dumped piles of waste were a local bottle bank this week, sparking frustration for users and those who manage the site.

Mattresses, tents and other general waste were strewn across the bottle bank at Morrisons in Victoria Road on Tuesday.

URM UK Limited, which is responsible for the bottle banks at the recycling site, said it had reported the issue to the relevant council, which is responsible for the site as a whole.

“We do not have the capacity to collect general waste,” a spokesman said.

“Upon emptying the bottle banks on Tuesday, we discovered the fly-tipping, which we reported straight away to the local council as a matter of priority.”

The state of the bottle bank has been a running issue for years – last summer, smashed glass and litter was strewn across the ground after the banks were left unattended for weeks.

An employee at Morrisons had said the situation was “getting out of hand”, adding that cleaners at the supermarket were being left to contain the growing mess.

The employee, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s a big issue, and it’s not just a one off – it’s in this state every week.

“Our cleaners have to come every day and sort this out, and put all the stuff in the trolleys. It’s getting out of hand.”

Last month, figures from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), revealed that fly-tipping in some parts of the Diss Express area had almost doubled in just a year.

In mid Suffolk, there were 565 incidents of fly-tipping in 2021 – up from just 301 the year before.

In south Norfolk, the number had risen to 971 – up from 725 the year before.

Clean-up bills per incident average around £1,000, according to the National Rural Crime Network, but large-scale incidents can cost upwards of £10,000.