80% of Fly-tipping is done by 20% of the Population!

80% of the illegally dumped rubbish in Orihuela Costa is dumped by 20% of the population of the area. That is if the logic follows the Pareto Principle, The Law of the Vital Few, or the 80:20 Rule as it’s more commonly referred to.

My experience in business and in life has shown the general principle to be valid, plus or minus a percentage point or two.

In line with the theory it would seem to follow on that 80% of the illegally dumped rubbish is located in 20% of the Fly-tip sites in the Orihuela Costa area. Could it be that if the Council concentrated just 20% of its cleaning effort on clearing those sites, we would all see an 80% improvement in the cleanliness of Orihuela Costa?

Can it be that 80% of the population who complain about the levels of rubbish will do nothing to clean it up, whilst 20% will? Does it follow on from this is that 80% of the residents accept the presence of rubbish, whilst only 20% do not? Surely this cannot be true!

Let’s now consider another aspect of unwanted litter on our streets, namely that of the presence of dog fouling. The rule suggests that 80% of the problem, the volume of dog faeces not cleaned up, is caused by 20% of dog owners.

Then there is the matter of litter thrown from cars. Is it possible that 20% of car users are responsible for 80% of the roadside rubbish, surely not?

Perhaps the percentages are all wrong! Perhaps it is more realistic in these circumstances that it should be the 95:5 rule. This would suggest that just 5% of the population dump 95% of the rubbish, or its only 5% of dog owners who don’t clean up after their animals and account for 95% of unwanted dog faeces on the streets, or it’s only 5%of motorists that are litter bugs. Those are better ratios!

But are they? If that is a more realistic ratio then it would suggest that 95% of the population who complain about the levels of un-cleared rubbish will do nothing to help clean it up. That 95% of the residents accept its presence in public areas! That cannot be true, can it?

The concept of the Pareto Principle I believe is valid, but does it matter what the actual percentage ratio is? What does matter though is that we all must surely agree that the amount of the various types of rubbish thrown and left on our streets, parks, playing fields, and open country is un-acceptable in a modern society.

Some of the important questions that we must find answers for are; how do we educate the fly-tippers to stop using public areas as their personal tip; how do we educate irresponsible dog owners to clean up their dogs faeces; how do we educate the majority of the population to get involved in clearing litter to help keep their local environment clean, rather than relying on the minority to do the job for them?

The most important question of all is;

how do we stop Orihuela Costa becoming an illegal landfill site?