Farmers and landowners across the region are being encouraged to report incidents of fly-tipping, as part of a national crackdown.
The Environment Agency, the Landowner Partnership Project, Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and the National Farmers Union (NFU) are trying to find out the true extent of the crime that blights huge swathes of the countryside.
Recent figures revealed that Birmingham City Council spent more than £2 million in the last two years tackling fly-tipping across the city, but the Environment Agency now wants a better idea of what is happening on rural land.
Its research found 94 per cent of private landowners suffer from illegal dumping of waste and half of local landowners said illegally dumped waste had become a significant concern.
With clearance costs averaging £809 per removal, the figures underline a significant problem which the Environment Agency aims to address through the Recognise, Record, Reduce campaign.
Gerald Lee, from the agency, said: “The purpose of our Recognise, Record, Reduce campaign is to record fly-tipping incidents uniformly through a central online system for an extended period of time.
“We need this level of understanding to be able to provide tools and guidance for tackling a problem that we know anecdotally is a big issue for Britain’s landowners.”
