Huge mound of recycling and packing waste appears at Broadstairs railway station just 24 hours after being cleared

From being cleared (inset) to growing pile 24 hours later

A recycling point at the St Peter’s side of Broadstairs Railway Station where a mountain of card, paper and bagged waste was dumped over Christmas has been cleared – only to become piled up again in less than 24 hours.

On December 28 the huge pile was photographed and captured on video by shocked resident Heidi Rogers who said it “stopped me in my tracks.” Her picture and film show the heap of boxes, papers and bagged rubbish dwarfing the recycling containers at the site, which had been emptied just before Christmas.

Ward councillor Mike Garner (Green Party), as well as fellow councillors including Independent Ruth Bailey, reported the mess to Thanet council’s street scene team for clearance.

Yesterday operatives were onsite and completely cleared the area but today (December 30) a new mountain of recycling has appeared.

Cllr Mike Garner

Cllr Garner said: “The council’s street cleaning team worked really hard yesterday to clear the rubbish from the station car park. When I went through there an hour ago, the rubbish had once again built up.

“The pictures show it clear and then with all the rubbish built up in less than 24 hours.

Cleared (Photo TDC team)

“I’ll report it to the council again and hopefully it’ll be cleared before the weekend. In the meantime, I’d ask that people please refrain from adding to the pile. Either book an appointment at the dump, hold onto it until the bins are emptied or dispose of it using your household bins/recycling.”

And 24 hour later (Photo Mike Garner)

Councillors Garner and Bailey have previously requested CCTV at the site.

Thanet council will collect additional recycling if it is in a suitable container next to your recycling bin.

Report fly-tipping here

23 Comments

  1. More proof that almost noone cares about climate change, plastic waste and unsustainable use of the planet’s resources. It’s all empty posturing.

    • When it comes to plastics recycling its all a farce, people dutifully sort it out, its collected and passed into the “ recycling chain”, then over the years we hear it’s been dumped in china, indonesia, turkey and romania. Plus we get the illegal storage as seen when we had the fire at westwood.
      It’s not recycling its virtue signalling dumping a huge waste of time effort and resources for all involved. Incineration in heat topower and district heating schemes would be far more honest and deal with our own waste on our own shores, but no the anti incinerator brigade start protesting demanding we have no modern incineration here but seemingly willing to have it burnt at the roadside overseas. Utterly pointless.

      • I am certainly not “virtue-signalling” when I recycle. I have been doing so for decades. It is the best I can do- because after the rubbish lorries have taken ny plastic etc away, it is no longer under my control what happens to it. To say that people who recycle are”virtue-signalling” is both insulting and ignorant.

        • Sorry but given the evidence over the years of what actually happens to plastics that are collected for recycling, such an attitude is in itself willfull ignorance. To be a willing participant and then declare its nothing to do with them after the collection itself displays an ignorance of what happens to the waste and a disregard to the planet they’d proclaim to be trying to protect.
          An unquestioning society reliant on an attitiude of “ i’ve done as i’ve been told so now its someone elses fault “ is going nowhere in the right direction. The same with covid and the grossly overweight and obese, anyone that has paid any attention to whats been happening sees that it’s a hugely relevant risk factor, but the “willfully ignorant” choose to have the country running in circles and expending huge amounts of resources to protect many who want to rely on vaccines and boosters to protect them as much from their lifestyle choices as the virus.
          All completely bonkers. Just think of how all those hundreds of billions could have been better used if the nation as a whole looked after itself better.

          • It is not “wilful ignorance”. People who care about the environment do what they can. That is, buy less ,use less, recycle.

    • Surely this is dumping on an industrial scale by unlicensed clearance operators ?

      It is difficult to believe that many dozens of individuals would have visited this location with cars full of cardboard in less than 24 hours.

      Amongst those hundreds of boxes there must be some clues as to the names and addresses of the sources.

  2. Not just Broadstairs,i travelled along Cliftonville to show my visitor the seafront and the rubbish strewn around everywhere was discusting I felt ashamed of the area

  3. It’s a classic example of the broken windows theory. Once a few people start dumping stuff there and it isn’t cleared it becomes socially acceptable for others (in their minds) to follow suit as the behaviour is then normalised. It’s the same reason why there is so much dog poo laying around and streets full of litter.

    It’s really important that the smallest amount gets cleared as soon as it appears. This way the problem won’t magnify and you won’t end up with the issue you can see here. Local residents need to help to be the eyes and ears but the Council need to get straight over there and clear it as soon as the problem first materialises. It will save a lot more time, work and money in the long run.

  4. Thanet has alot of people who are happy to live like this that is clear.

    TDC could provide a million bins it would abit of a difference but not much.

    It’s a double edge sword the more TDC pick this up the more will be dumped. Why go to the tip when you can just dump the rubbish for TDC to pick up.

    Call it art and sell it for a few million and with the money get good CCTV. Than when caught put the people in stocks so we can show these people what decent people think of them !

  5. Looks like address labels are still on some of the boxes – anything dumped outside the bins is flytipping. Any bets on whether we’ll hear anything about enforcement and prosecution?

  6. This illegal fly tipping has nothing to do with the requirement to pre-book appointments at the Manston road dump, I take it??
    Of course it has! The bone idle of Thanet cannot be ars*d to wait a day or two, they simply want rid of now.
    It’s not just those in white vans that fly tip, the general public also think it’s ok I when it suits them, it appears.
    Enforcement and prosecutions needed or go back tho the turn up and go system at the official waste disposal point.

    • Spot on Ton – appointments for using the tip are just another means of lazy council administrators to look busy.

      For the pile of rubbish to reappear in just 24 hours says TDC have badly underestimated the need and the problem needs daily attention. Time for the middle management enjoying their extra bank holiday time and start working.

    • The irony being of course that it takes less than a minute to prebook a slot at the tip and you’re in and out quickly , where as under the old system in the days immediately after xmas you’d be likely to be queing for ages waiting to get to dispose of your waste. As such if people are too lazy to book a slot that will save them time they ain’t gonna queue and so will just dump their rubbish somewhere else anyway.
      The booking system is one of KCC’s ( please note its not a tdc facility) better ideas, that its not used is just another example of an inability to make the most of what’s available.

  7. Whether it’s Ramsgate, Cliftonville or as we now see happening in Broadstairs this is a symptom of how people live today! A throw-away society which relies now on take away and fast food, online shopping and ever increasing home deliveries of everything imaginable, excessive cardboard and plastic packing which residents dump wherever they can.

  8. Over the last decade we’ve been pushed to recycle more and then when people actually do it, there is uproar and bitching. Regardless of how it got there, that is recyclable materials where they are supposed to be.

    Did they really think 3 bins for 25000 people would be sufficient over a period where people are given untold gifts wrapped in cardboard, paper and plastic?

  9. Its not like this in bognor regis,when i was on holiday at butlins in 2018,There was a recycle center near the town. And it was tidy,like the town.Nothing will change in thanet.

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