Thousands of fly tipping incidents have been reported over the past year and the the majority of offenders are still getting away with it.
The latest figures from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) reveal 37,884 incidents of fly-tipping were recorded across the area in 2020/21 - the equivalent of more than four every hour.
The number is up from 31,362 reports of illegally-dumped rubbish in 2019/20, and 30,970 cases the year before that.
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Campaigners say the figures are “horrendous” and have called on the government to take a tougher stance on littering and fly-tipping.
The problem is particularly bad in Liverpool, which has the highest rate of fly-tipping in Merseyside.
Liverpool City Council is trying to remedy the problem by educating people and offering a number of free services such as community skips and a collection service for unwanted bulky items.
Cllr Abdul Qadir, Liverpool City Council 's Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods Services, also makes clear that the authority is clamping down on prolific offenders by fining them once they are caught.
Meanwhile, Wirral has seen the biggest increase in incidents during the pandemic, with reports rising by 62% in the last year.
Last year, councils in Merseyside spent £724,393 just on clearing instances of large-scale fly-tipping alone - which only accounts for a fraction of the overall cost.
Fly-tipping is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £50,000 or 12 months imprisonment if convicted in a Magistrates’ Court.
The offence can attract an unlimited fine and up to five years imprisonment if convicted in a Crown Court.
There are also a number of other possible penalties, including fixed penalty notices and having a vehicle seized.
Householders can be fined up to £400 if they pass their waste to an unlicensed waste carrier that is subsequently fly-tipped.
However, campaign group Clean Up Britain says the government needs to issue strong guidance to courts to start using these strict sentences, which they're not doing at the moment.
In Merseyside, councils took action of any kind - be it conducting an investigation, sending out warning letters, doling out fines or prosecuting someone - on 11,769 occasions in 2020/21.
That was down from 13,047 actions in 2019/20, despite the number of incidents increasing.
It means that in more than two in three cases, fly-tippers in the area are getting away with it completely - assuming that one action relates to a single incident.
The number of people actually prosecuted fell from 22 cases in 2019/20 to 10 last year - with eight of those found guilty fined in court (down from 16).
It means councils were able to collect £2,548 in court fines in 2020/21, down from £4,105 in 2019/20.
There were also 1,010 fixed penalty notices handed out - down from 1,878 - although only 22 were subsequently paid (up from none).
John Read, founder of Clean Up Britain, said: "The figures continue to go in the wrong direction and are simply horrendous.
"They prove that the UK is in the middle of a litter and fly-tipping epidemic. The government needs to get serious about tackling this problem at last.
"We want to see minimum fines of £5,000 for fly-tipping, to act as a serious deterrent, sending a strong message that fly-tipping will no longer be tolerated.
"And the government needs to make it clear that they expect the courts to impose much stronger fines than they currently do.
"The Don’t Trash Our Future campaign is gaining traction, and we’re seeing a lot of support for a minimum fine of £1,000 for littering.
"This is the only way to get through to people - by hurting them in their pockets.
"As well as minimum fines, we also want to see compulsory enforcement, as currently three in four councils do little or nothing to enforce littering laws.
"The government talks tough, but as so often, acts weak. They need to act now to turn the tide on litter and fly-tipping."
'Education is key', says Liverpool City Council Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods
It is hoped that through educating people about the impact that fly-tipping has, offenders will stop doing it - that's the message from Cllr Abdu Qadir.
Cllr Qadir is Liverpool City Council's Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods Services and he spoke to the ECHO about his vision to clamp down on fly-tipping.
Cllr Qadir said: "Our first and foremost approach is to educate people and engage positively with people to make them aware of the impact they are having by taking part in fly-tipping and what they can do to stop it.
"On average, we send about 10,000 letters between us as Liverpool City Council and Liverpool Streetscene Service Limited (LSSL), which are either a warning or are educational in relation to fly-tipping. These letters remind offenders of their duty to dispose waste responsibly.
"If we do have that evidence and it starts to become prolific fly-tipping, then we go to prosecution. So that's the overall approach.
"We want to educate people and work with people. The last thing we want to do is to give someone a fine who is already struggling due to the financial situation many people are finding themselves in. We would like partners in this because you can never address it alone. You can never really just address this issue with just fines.
"We do encourage people to go to the waste recycling centres, which are managed by the Merseyside Waste Recyling Authority and we have two of these in Liverpool on Green Lane and the Jericho Lane.
"There are others close to the city boundary which can be used - including Kirkby, Huyton and Bootle, so people in the city who are nearer to these can use them if they wanted. They are free to use, meaning people can just turn up and dispose of their rubbish."
All incidents of fly-tipping are investigated and the local authority will pursue all matters where evidence is found.
LSSL issued 30 FPNs in 2021 – these fines were worth £400 each. LSSL also issued 15 FPNs for fly-tipping in 2021 - and a further 40 were issued for commercial waste and 19 for littering. If someone is caught littering it is an £80 fine.
Cllr Qadir added: "In Liverpool we spend around £2million a year to tackle fly-tipping. We received 12,000 reports of fly-tipping in 2021 - and 9,183 reports were actioned by LSSL and cleared within an average response time of two-and-a-half working days.
"The remaining 3,000 were all investigated and resolved by education, positive engagement and some through the enforcement process, including cases where offenders removed their own.
"Liverpool Streetscene Services Limited spend an average of 200 hours per week to manage flytipping."
Liverpool councillors promote the council's successful community skip programmes, which are arranged and organised through elected members, street scene officers and LSSL.
Abdul Qadir added: "This is a combination of working in the community and working with registered social landords and they also contribute to the skip programmes. The skips are accessible by getting in touch with local councillors or by Streetscene officers.
"So if a community or a group of people contact the relevent people and say, 'We've got quite a lot of bulky items that can't be taken by car or vehicle, so would you be able to deliver a skip?', then we'll respond. This is another way of us positively engaging with people.
"We also have the Bulky Bob's sevice which is free to use. They will call within 15 days.
"The more people understand what's available to them - like Bulky Bob's - then the less likely they take part in fly-tipping.
"Also, it's unfortunate that our teams are taken away from other jobs they are already working on when there is a further incident of fly-tipping. So the more people understand the bigger picture the better."
More information about Bulky Bob's can be found at: https://liverpool.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/bulky-item-collection/
Improved CCTV will help catch fly-tippers
Liverpool City Council recently secured additional funding and has bought portable covert cameras.
These will soon be deployed by both Streetscene and LSSL enforcement officers at known fly-tipping hot-spots.
Cllr Qadir said: "There are ten cameras which are part of the funding we have applied for. These can be placed into to the City Watch cameras if they are close by. They are top of the range cameras because we have to have really clear images.
"Where there is known hotspots we want to have cameras in these areas. Where we put them will be based on statistics and data. We look at it at an intelligence point-of-view.
"If we have times and dates around incidents we can also have officers in these areas. This is all part of my plan to have visibility in neighbourhoods, whether it's from enforcement teams or even the parking enforcement officers which are only parking. My aim is to have a one team approach to this as well.
