Fines for fly-tipping in the East End will more than quadruple after a huge rise in offences.
Tower Hamlets Council has signed off plans to increase the maximum penalty for dumping rubbish from £80 to £400 - the highest fine it can legally impose.
The move follows fly-tipping offences almost doubling in the borough, from 4,555 in 2015/16 to 9,228 last year.
The problem costs the council more than £690,000 a year in removal and disposal costs.
Businesses illegally disposing of their waste were some of the worst offenders, cabinet member for environment David Edgar said.
"We have businesses who have been fined again and again and again and they just see it as cheaper to get those notices than set up proper collections," he said.
"A fixed penalty fine of £400 will be a deterrent. This charge will also cover the costs of policing fly-tipping and legal challenges where fixed penalty notices are issued."
Fly-tipping has increased by 50 per cent across the country in the past six years, according to government data, prompting councils to call for bigger penalties for offenders.
Cleaning it up costs UK councils some £58m annually.
Fly-tippers caught in Tower Hamlets are currently handed an £80 fine, reduced to £50 if paid within 10 days. In the past two years, the local authority has issued 1,939 fines for these type of offences, with a 58pc payment rate.
Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs said: "This is not meant to be revenue generating initiative. In theory we want to be at a place where we have no enforcement officers because everyone behaves themselves."
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