How Utter Rubbish reduces fly tipping and makes recycling better

It's a disgusting and expensive mess. Fly tipping is the illegal dumping of rubbish and a costly scourge. Local authorities dealt with over a million incidents of fly tipping in England alone last year.

But Elliott Lancaster is on a clean-up mission. Utter Rubbish is a social enterprise he created while studying at Keele University (he gained a first-class degree in accounting and finance and is now taking a PhD there).

Elliott set up Utter Rubbish to communicate more effectively about what can and can't be recycled. He wanted to address the problem of contamination within waste materials which could and should be recycled. And during his research he twigged on to just how much fly tipping occurs.

Now, Elliott's app – which is already being piloted by a local authority – helps councils save money while they address the issue of fly tipping.

Elliott describes how the app works, how Utter Rubbish seeks to change perceptions and behaviour, its impact, and its plans to scale nationally in this episode of the Making an Impact Podcast.