He said the Environment Agency had estimated there were 50,000 fly-tipping incidents each year, costing some 150m to clear up.
Mr Michael said: “We are absolutely committed to tackling this problem which costs innocent victims and public bodies a great deal of money to remove and dispose of safely.”
The first consultation deals with the relationship between councils and the Agency.
It proposes statutory directions which would have the effect of focussing the Agency's work on large incidents involving non-hazardous waste, most incidents involving any hazardous waste, and cases where the involvement of organised crime is suspected.
“Fly tipping can occur due to a lack of awareness of responsibilities for proper waste disposal, but the Environment Agency has put forward evidence that much of it is organised by professional criminals to gain financial reward,” Mr Michael explained.
Councils would deal with smaller incidents and the Agency would provide support and advice to them.
The Agency's waste policy manager, Alan D'A;rcy, said: “Fly-tipping is a crime that affects us all and is continuing to get worse. In one year alone we dealt with almost 5,000 serious flytipping incidents.
“It is vital that we work together with the government and in particular through partnerships with local authorities to help crack this anti-social problem,” he added.
Penalty
The second consultation proposes legal changes, including fixed penalty notices for failure to show a valid waste transfer note or waste carrier registration, fines of up to 50,000 for repeat offences and stronger powers to deal with absentee landowners who operate illegal tips.
Mr Michael also announced plans for research into the causes of fly-tipping, which will feed into a good practice guide on prevention.
He said the agency had gathered evidence that organised crime was responsible for a high proportion of fly-tipping, although no national data existed to quantify this.
A web-based system called Flycapture, developed by the Agency, DEFRA and local authorities, will collect data on fly-tipping to try to fill this gap in knowledge, the minister said.
Both consultations run until May 14, 2004, and can be seen in full at the DEFRA website.
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