Rochdale Borough Council

Find out about fly-tipping and littering and see how to report problems.  

Fly-tipping

Fly-tipped waste generally consists of items of rubbish such as fridges, mattresses, builders rubble and tyres dumped illegally from a vehicle instead of being disposed of properly. Fly-tipping is expensive to remove and unsightly.​

Report fly-tipping

If you discover fly-tipped waste, please:

1. Don't touch the waste. Fly-tipped waste can be dangerous. It may contain syringes, broken glass, asbestos, toxic chemicals or other hazardous material. There may also be evidence that could help us identify the fly-tippers and lead to their prosecution.
2. Report the site to us using the online form below. Please provide as much information as possible, such as the location, the offender's address, vehicle registration and the time of the incident. We'll treat all information confidentially.
3. Once you've reported fly-tipping, we'll visit the site and clear it away as soon as possible.

Please note: we're aware of an issue with reporting fly-tipping on some mobile devices. If you struggle to use the form on your phone or tablet, please use a laptop or computer instead. You can use a computer for FREE at any library in the borough. We are working to fix this issue and apologise for any inconvenience caused. How to use computers in the library

​​Report fly-tipping (opens in a new window)

What fly-tipping you can and can't tell us about

You can tell us about fly-tipping:

• On any public land, such as roads, parks and town centres.
• In rivers, streams or brooks.

You can't tell us about fly-tipping:

• On private land. You can report fly-tipping as a crime to the police but you'll need to organise removing the waste yourself. Report a non-emergency to the police.
• In the canal. Please report this to the Canal and River Trust.
• On or near train lines. Please report this to Network Rail.
• On or near tram lines. Please contact Transport for Greater Manchester.
  
  

What you can do to help reduce fly-tipping

Please don't fly-tip. If you need to throw away large items, you can:

• Read Recycle for Greater Manchester's SCRAP code which may help you prevent your waste from being fly-tipped. If waste is illegally dumped and traced back to you, you could be help responsible even if you hired someone else to take it away.     
• Donate furniture to your local furniture re-use organisation.
• Take your unwanted goods to a tip or recycling centre.​
• Ask us to collect your bulky household items for a charge.
• Hire a business to dispose of the rubbish but check if they're licensed to take your rubbish away before hiring them. Search for a company's waste carrier licence.

More information about tackling fly-tipping is available from the Environmental Agency.

Public litter bins and littering

We're responsible for ensuring the borough is kept as clean as possible. Enforcement Officers patrol the borough and issue on the spot notices of £75 to anyone caught littering.

Report litter problems or littering

Anything less than the size of a bin bag of waste can be classed as littering.

You can tell us about:

• Littering on any public land, such as roads, parks and town centres.
• An accumulation of litter.
• One item of litter if you've evidence of the offender.
• A public litter bin that's overflowing.
• Litter on private land if the land doesn't belong to you. We can serve a notice to the land owner to clean up the litter.

You can't tell us about littering:

• On land you own. You can report littering as a crime to the police but you'll need to organise removing the litter yourself. Report a non-emergency to the police.
• On train tracks or in a train station. Please report this to National Rail.
• On tram tacks or at a tram stop. Please contact Transport for Greater Manchester.
  
  

How often we empty public litter bins

This depends on the type of area and the frequency of usage. As a guideline we empty bins in town centres and shopping precincts and areas at least once a day. Through the knowledge and experience of our operatives who patrol the borough, we're able to ensure litter bins in other areas are emptied when required and visited at least fortnightly.

Where litter bins are located

We place bins of varying capacity around the borough depending on the levels of use and other factors. We've a rolling programme to ensure bins around shop fronts and town centres have the facility to easily dispose of cigarettes and chewing gum.