Lancaster City Council say they’ve dealt with the equivalent of 30 double-decker buses filled with unwanted household items that have been fly-tipped since January.
The 382-tonnes of waste was removed from roadsides, residential streets, and green spaces.
Of the 4,099 incidents, 313 were made up of construction waste, meaning the vast majority came from homes.
It’s Keep Britain Tidy’s 'Fight Fly-Tipping Fortnight', a campaign warning residents about criminal waste traders who use convincing, professional-looking online ads to pose as legitimate businesses – only to illegally dump the rubbish they are paid to take away.
Fly-tipping costs councils across England millions of pounds every year to clear up, draining money that could otherwise be spent on essential local services.
The campaign calls on people to protect themselves and their communities from falling for a #RubbishDeal – low-cost, unlicensed services offered using appealing ads on social media by organised waste criminals.
Rogue waste traders hide in plain sight behind professional-looking adverts, 'five-star' reviews and tempting prices, making it difficult to tell them apart from legitimate operators. What they don't tell you is where your rubbish could end up.
Fight Fly-Tipping Fortnight is helping residents know what to look out for and make simple checks before handing over their rubbish to avoid it being illegally dumped on streets, fields and public spaces.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive Officer at Keep Britain Tidy, added: "Local authorities see first-hand the damage fly-tipping causes, working every day to clear illegally dumped waste and protect the places their communities value.
"People hiring someone to take away their rubbish should be able to trust that it will be disposed of responsibly. But rogue waste traders are exploiting that trust, taking people's money and then leaving their waste dumped in streets, fields and public spaces for communities and councils to deal with.
"What makes this particularly difficult is that criminals can be surprisingly hard to spot. A convincing advert, good reviews and a cheap price can make an illegal operator look like a legitimate business, leaving people thinking they're paying for their rubbish to be responsibly taken away when it could end up dumped in their own community.
"Our message is simple: don't fall for a #RubbishDeal. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is."
There’s a quick way to ensure that the person taking away your rubbish is a licensed waste carrier and will dispose of your items responsibly, by checking here
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