New figures show that Oxfordshire County Council tax payers are having to pick up a hefty bill for widespread fly tipping across the county.
County Hall has revealed the full extent of the problem after compiling incident figures for the first time.
They indicate that in the year up to April the council had to deal with 3,689 incidents, operations which came to a total cost of £194,260.
Mark Leonard, county council waste enforcement officer, said: "We are seeing different patterns in different areas. But the majority of incidents involve household waste that could be disposed of in recycling centres for free.
"There have been particular problems around bottle and paper banks, where waste is dumped sometimes through ignorance. But often it involves shop traders, who should know better."
A recent council trade waste survey found that 28 per cent of businesses make no proper arrangements for getting rid of waste.
Mr Leonard said: "Tyres are also one of our biggest problems.
"They are often dumped 30 or 40 at a time, which obviously suggests it is a commercial activity."
Earlier this months residents in Bucknell were appalled to find 50 car tyres dumped in lanes near the village.
Bucknell Parish Council clerk Malcolm Cardy said: "We think it comes down to the fact that tyre retailers are offering discounts to people who want to dispose of the tyres themselves.
"But they don't do that. They just dump them on their way home."
County Hall is hoping that recent court cases will send out the signal that fly-tipping will not be tolerated in the region.
Last month a man was fined £500 and ordered to pay £999.60 in costs at Reading Magistrates Court after it was found he was handing over waste from his building business without a transfer note.
One batch of the waste was found at the edge of woodland near Tidmarsh on the Berkshire-Oxfordshire border.
Parish councillors at Cuddesdon, near Wheatley, recently criticised the Environment Agency and South Oxfordshire District Council for failing to act against fly-tippers over the illeal dumping of builders' waste at a rural beauty spot.
A 10-month investigation failed to bring about a prosecution, even though local teenagers had been able to note a vehicle's registration number.
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