Fly-tippers may get the bill in France

Since a ruling by the top administrative court, the conseil d’état, in October mayors are liable to enforce a clear-up and should use their police powers to tell the culprit to sort the clean-up. In addition, anyone using a vehicle to dump rubbish faces having it confiscated.

An environmental study found people dumped 81,000 tonnes of rubbish in the countryside each year – including 4,900 tonnes collected by autoroute clean-ups – and 60kg of cigarette ends, cans, bottles and other waste every second.