Fly-tippers dumping waste illegally are costing Nottingham taxpayers hundreds of pounds every day.
And despite spending more than £811,000 in cleaning up since 2011, the authority has only received £1,750 in fines from fly-tipping over three years.
The city has been hit with an average of nearly 15 fly-tips a day, but only eight people have been caught since 2012, Government figures have said.
There were 16,245 incidents of people dumping waste, including tyres, white goods and even animal carcasses on the streets in Nottingham.
Investigating fly-tipping costs Nottingham City Council £49,401 over the three years, figures from the Department of Environmental and Rural Affairs showed.
Residents have said they want to see fly-tippers punished.
Hassan Khaled, 59, Sneinton, has seen rubbish dumped on Windmill Lane. He said: "If someone messes up where you live by dumping stuff, you want to be sure they are paying for it.
"I'm surprised only eight people have been fined – I don't know what kind of message that sends out.
And Richard Lloyd, 67, also from Sneinton, said: "I don't think fly-tipping is as big a problem as it once was, but you want to see people punished when they do it, otherwise it makes you look like a soft touch. But my main gripe has to be with those that do it. This is where people live and it's not nice to look at."
Richard Antcliff, head of neighbourhood enforcement and operational support at Community Protection, said: "We work to warn people and prevent fly-tips happening in the first place. Even if we fined everyone, we wouldn't recoup the costs of clearance and investigation."
In September, Gedling Borough Council took further action against fly-tippers after 43 incidents in 10 days. The council looked at using CCTV cameras to catch fly-tippers, as well as stepping up patrols. The cameras have not yet been switched on.
But Mr Antcliff suggested it was unlikely the city council would use CCTV cameras.
The number of fly-tips in Nottingham stood at 7,618 in 2011/12 and decreased to 4,180 in 2013/14.
Elsewhere across Notts, £700 in fines was handed out last year after 5,554 tips, £645 the year before after 4,998 and £2,643 in 2011/12 after 5,067.
Head of community services, Nicola Heaton said the city council was one of the few in the country to have a free bulky waste collection service which helped Nottingham win the title of Britain's Cleanest City.
Appointments to collect bulky waste can be booked by calling 0115 915 2000 or visiting nottinghamcity.gov.uk/bulkywaste.
