Skip-wrecked! Boat full o' rubbish scuppered in Brit residential street

Dumping boats on streets may just be a thing after an another example showed up, this time on the streets of Southampton and filled with all sorts of garbage. Residents have been faced with a speedboat full of barbed wire, old sofas and other household rubbish dumped outside their homes, according to snaps on local site the …

[fluffybunnyuk]

Ahh Jim Bowen and Bullseye... I wondered where all those star prizes ended up...

[wolfetone]

It's not coinkydink that Mr.Bowen leaves us for that big dart board in the sky, and suddenly the streets of the UK are bereft of speedboats and old Vauxhall Nova's. Just abandoned.

[Steve K]

As someone said last week on the announcement of Jim Bowen's demise just after that of Stephen Hawking:

"Jim Bowen always let the non-darts player go first..."

[MyffyW]

I've taxed worse....

No perforation rust and a full set of tyres. And the emissions are likely to be low, even without a defeat device from VW.

[Haku]

"it would be just as easy to take material to the council recycling centre and dispose of it legally."

Last time I checked, recycling centres have opening hours, public roads don't.

[Anonymous Coward]

And probably more to the point, the council recycling centre would charge for non-household waste like speedboats and old tyres.

[phuzz]

I'm surprised they don't take tires when we can leave old engine oil and car batteries by the kerb and they'll be recycled round here.

[Tom 7]

@phuzz

Engine oil and car batteries can be profitably recycled whereas tyres are a fucking expensive nightmare to get rid of without causing some serious pollution.

[Stevie]

Re: @phuzz

"Engine oil and car batteries can be profitably recycled whereas tyres are a fucking expensive nightmare to get rid of without causing some serious pollution."

Can't you just hang them off the gunwales of your boat?

[LucreLout]

I'm surprised they don't take tires when we can leave old engine oil and car batteries by the kerb and they'll be recycled round here.

Old tyres are worth less than nothing, while batteries contain recycleable metals worth more than the cost of the recycling, and oil is also worth more than the cost of recycling. Unfortunately its basic economics driving what the tip will take, rather than any direct hatred of tyres and speedboats.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Recycling tyres

That's not strictly true. There is a very lucrative industry in shredding old tyres, containerising them and then selling / laying them in vast amounts to cover the courses used train racehorses and such like. I used to rent a house on a training farm in West Sussex and the suppliers were always in laying tons of the stuff in all weathers.

Not saying all tyres go this way but it takes a fuckton of them to be shredded to a smallish size to cover a 2 mile course to a depth of 3 inches.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Recycling tyres

"Not saying all tyres go this way but it takes a fuckton of them to be shredded to a smallish size to cover a 2 mile course to a depth of 3 inches."

Likewise childrens play areas and even road surfaces (mixed with tarnac). I also recall a report from Australia using cut-up sections of tyres strapped together and reflectors added to make roadside marker posts which, on the whole, survive being driven over in accident almost entirely unscathed. and a longer roadside lifetime to boot.

[Stevie]

Re: Recycling tyres

Likewise childrens play areas

Ye Gods! What about the razor-sharp steely beltees?

Wait ... as you were.

[GruntyMcPugh]

@Haku True, but fly tippers do seem to go out of their way to dump their crap. I walk my dogs down to the local park, where there is a disused school, on the end of a cul de sac. It's a favourite tipping point, and they seem to like tipping in the wee small hours, as I pass the place around 06:15, and stuff has appeared over night. Why they can't keep regular hours and take stuff to the tip bemuses me.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Last time I checked, recycling centres have opening hours, public roads don't."

In the 1980s our local council tip used to leave three large skips outside when they were closed. It wasn't unusual to find people there at 2am on a summer weekend.

There was also a further recycling taking place as people removed apparently still useful things. Nowadays you get challenged if you are leaving the council recycling centre with the container in which you brought your things there on foot.

They also have limits on how much you can take there eg one fence panel. Anything more and they redirect you to go elsewhere to find a commercial tip. A neighbour took a large box of pamphlets left over from an advertising campaign. She was refused entry - and they had no facility to accept payment for what they deemed a "commercial" quantity.

If you turn up in a van then you are refused entry as "commercial".

If you don't have a car then they charge GBP60 for every three items to be collected from your house.

[theModge]

Nowadays you get challenged if you are leaving the council recycling centre with the container in which you brought your things there on foot.

Oh but to live in such a liberal paradise where you can bring things in on foot! Here in Birmingham they won't allow you in without a car. The 3 recycling centres for a city of 1 million souls have multiple hour long queues on Saturdays in the summer. We too can pay for it if we don't have a car. They wonder why there's a problem with people fly tipping..

[anothercynic]

Sounds familiar

If you turn up in a van then you are refused entry as "commercial".

Yes, sounds familiar... and if it's a rental van (which is usually clearly marked as such), beware as they'll tell you that a week-long rental is considered 'commercial' too (despite being more cost-effective than renting it over two weekends. Yes, Oxfordshire County Council's Redbridge site, I am looking at you w***ers.

If you don't have a car then they charge GBP60 for every three items to be collected from your house.

Well, good old Oxfordshire County Council won't even let you into their sites without a car (bike not allowed) for 'safety reasons'. And here you pay £26 *per item* for a maximum of three items. And then they wonder why people fly tip...

[Stoneshop]

Re: Sounds familiar

Well, good old Oxfordshire County Council won't even let you into their sites without a car (bike not allowed) for 'safety reasons'.

Curious what they would think of a motorcycle with sidecar, which McD once considered not automobily enough to serve me a milkshake at the drive-through. The municipal rubbish dump was OK with it though, when I went to dispose of 160kg of rebuilding remnants.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Sounds familiar

whats astonishing there isnt the vehicle , its that they let you dump building remnants!

[LucreLout]

A neighbour took a large box of pamphlets left over from an advertising campaign. She was refused entry - and they had no facility to accept payment for what they deemed a "commercial" quantity.

I often get the same challenge when recycling used engine oil - my track day car gets a change every few sessions, and my road cars twice a year on average. Apparently (if I've had a busy summer season) taking 8-10 containers of oil is commercial scale. When I refuse to acept this or to pay, and just start tipping it into the vat they wander off moaning but otherwise nothing happens.

[NorthernCoder]

Fly-tipping

Isn't it float-tipping in this case?

[Tom 7]

Re: Fly-tipping

and soon to be sink tipping too.

[Ken Moorhouse]

Re: Fly-tipping

Surely Skippers did it?

[Stevie]

Re: Fly-tipping

I was just wondering how long it would be before we read about a shortage of skips/dumpsters due to people stealing them in order to sail around the world in them.

[Chris G]

Quite a few boats get dumped here on the island. One was left for months in the public car park near my mate's house. When we walked over to have look at it we could see that someone had taken a dump on the driver's seat . Dave looked at it "Ah the captain's log" he said with a completely straight face.

I had tears in my eyes and aching cheeks.

[tip pc]

@Chris G

I had tears in my eyes and aching cheeks.

are you outing yourself on a public forum?

Was it that big it hurt? maybe take some laxative and use a toilet next time!!

[Chris G]

In the interests of clarity, I am not a captain and the tears and aching cheeks were the result of laughter not abdominal stress.

[herbgold]

Is it called Sh*tty MacSh*tface?

[Anonymous South African Coward]

is it a floater?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we call it Tippy McTipface?

[Uncle Slacky]

> Can we call it Tippy McTipface?

Tippecanoe? ...and Tyler too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tippecanoe_and_Tyler_Too

[JeffyPoooh]

Boats are expensive...

Even a bare hull of an old speedboat seems to sell for thousands of dollars. Crikey, they want hundreds for anything that floats.

Being on a lake, I would like to have a boat. Maybe I should put out a 'No Fly Tipping' (or 'No Dumping') sign to try to attract old boats.

[Halfmad]

Re: Boats are expensive...

You'd have enough old tyres within a year to recreate Waterworld.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Boats are expensive...

> Even a bare hull of an old speedboat seems to sell for thousands of dollars.

They really don't.

[Anonymous South African Coward]

Here in SA that boat would've been gone and sold to a scrap yard... the tyres gone on a taxi (if still good) or be cut apart for a tyre swing, and the barbed wire, sofa and assorted stuff to a shack owner.

[imanidiot]

I doubt a scrapyard would want a polyester hull though.

[imanidiot]

Seems like a still decent hull. Why not just sell it? Dumping it seems like more work than putting out a "free, pick up only" advertisement on the local flEabay equivalent.

[Anonymous Coward]

My hovercraft is full of eels.

My boat is full of shite.

[hplasm]

Re: My hovercraft is full of eels.

My hovercraft is full of eels.

My boat is full of shite.

I really do not want it now,

I'll dump it in the night.

I thangyew!

[keith_w]

Can't they track down who owns the boat? In Canada, where I live, only boats with less than a 10HP motor DON'T have to be licensed, and from what I have seen, the license numbers (on each side of the bow) generally leave an impression so that even if the stickers are faded off, the faded hull around the numbers leave the original numbers visible.

[RealBigAl]

The legacy of Bullseye continues to blight our streets.

(Not my joke, but it's a good one)

Andromeda road though, is it a Galaxy class vessel?

[Gotno iShit Wantno iShit]

Hyperbolae much

Love the title for the picture gallery on the Echo site, "Boat full of barbed wire..". Because barbed wire is sharp & might hurt someone, health & safety deathtrap, think of the children etc etc. In picture 8 (of 8) you can see a few coils of barbed wire, I doubt there's much over 5 meters of it.

[BinkyTheMagicPaperclip]

Entertainment with boats

If you ever want an entertaining evening, go and look at boat adverts.

Very quickly you'll discover several rust buckets on offer for 20 grand in cash with a note that the owner is 'concentrating on doing up the inside first'.

Further entertainment can be obtained from the shmuc^H^H^H new owners who have purchased said barely floating trash, got ripped off by other people who 'totally know about boats and can fit it up guv' (and also accept payment only in cash before disappearing). Not to mention then deciding to do the boat up themselves by popping down to B&Q to buy paint.

None of the above is even slightly exaggerated, and boats aren't my area of expertise either.. I do have friends who sold their house and bought a (comparatively inexpensive) ship to sail round the world with. Despite knowing what they were doing, and buying the ship from a meticulous owner, it still took ages to get fitted..

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Entertainment with boats

AKA the most expensive thing to buy is a cheap/free boat

[Pete4000uk]

Re: Entertainment with boats

BOAT - Bring Out Another Thousand

[jake]

Re: Entertainment with boats

A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money.

You don't want a boat, unless you can afford to keep it away from the three things guaranteed to ruin it ... That would be sunlight, oxygen and water, if you were wondering.

You really want nothing to do with a used boat. You're just buying someone else's problems.

You want a boat found on the side of the road even less. It hasn't been dumped because it'll be cheap, fun and easy to get running. And no, it's not worth 20 grand. It never will be, either, no matter how much money you waste on it. It was dumped because it's past the point of no return. It would be simpler and cheaper to build a new one from scratch.

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader as to how I know the above.

[Chris G]

Re: Entertainment with boats

The standard comment amongst boat owners is 'it's the same as owning a large hole to throw money into'.

[Mike Moyle]

" "It never ceases to amaze me the lengths some people will go to fly-tip..."

Particularly since they can move so much FASTER than cows and don't make as satisfying a "thump" when you DO manage to tip them! I guess it's the challenge of the thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

FIAT = BOAT?

Have a FIAT, and it just is not worth having it. Definitely getting rid of it soon. Piece of ****.

[andy gibson]

councillor Don Thomas quoted as saying: "It never ceases to amaze me the lengths some people will go to fly-tip when it would be just as easy to take material to the council recycling centre and dispose of it legally."

I'll tell you why Don, based on my local ones:

1) Tips close before I finish work. At weekends there are massive queues.

2) Surly staff

3) Striking staff

4) Expensive charges if you dare to turn up in anything other than a car.

5) And probably the most obvious one: "A speedboat, we're not f*cking taking that".

[Anonymous South African Coward]

If you want to stop people fly-tipping, then ensure they have ways and means of disposing of their rubbish legally.

Attaching allsorts of strings or conditions to this only mean that fly-tipping will get worse, and will cost the council more money than what it would've cost them if they did it in a better way...

Seems common sense had left this planet a long time ago.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

If these places are called recycling centres - how come we arnt allowed to take stuff out and recycle it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Garbage in, Garbage Out...

There are at least two TV shows about rubbish taken away from landfill sites by a lovey, conveyed to honest artisans and then hawked around by another lovey, with the proceeds (in used notes) given to a 'good cause'.

Including the TV programmes, the total rubbish at the end of the process is more than the original trash 'rescued'.

Anonymous as I wouldn't admit to watching them, even involuntarily..