Help us tackle litter and illegal dumping in the Shire!

Feedback closed 19 May 2024

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Litter and illegal dumping have huge financial, social, and environmental costs. 

To reduce these impacts, we have developed a Litter and Illegal Dumping Prevention Strategy.

This has been developed through consultation with community and local organisations.

The Strategy was on exhibition during May and closed on the 19 May. The final will be taken to Council for adoption in June.

Aims of the Litter and Illegal Dumping Prevention Strategy

Litter and illegal dumping effects our enjoyment of our parks, beaches and towns. It also comes at a cost to ratepayers and has detrimental impacts on wildlife and marine life.

The Litter and Illegal Dumping Prevention Strategy aims to reduce the impacts by targeting the most problematic items and issues.

The Strategy outlines how these issues will be managed over the next five years, with a focus on: 

  • Education, awareness and engagement 
  • Regulation and Enforcement 
  • Infrastructure, Services and Clean-up
  • Source Control and Circular Economy initiatives
  • Monitoring, evaluation and research.

This Strategy builds on the success of Council’s Illegal Dumping and Litter Education and Enforcement Plan 2018 – 2022, which achieved:

  • 40% reduction in litter volume
  • 30% reduction in illegal dumping incidents.

The Strategy provides a framework for how we implement actions to achieve an additional: 

  • 20% reduction in plastic litter items by 2029
  • 40% reduction in all littered items by 2029
  • 20% reduction in illegal dumping incidents by 2029.

View the Litter and Illegal Dumping Prevention Strategy.

Draft Litter and Illegal Dumping Prevention Strategy(PDF, 2MB)

Kerbside pick-up issues

The Litter and Illegal Dumping Prevention Strategy aims to find ways to improve our current services and make them more inclusive.  

We are not considering going back to a standard bulky waste kerbside collection service. 

This is due to: 

  •  An increase in illegal dumping incidents. 
  • More waste to landfill and lack of resource recovery due to waste being not well sorted or presented 
  • Pollution and environmental impacts  
  • Safety hazards for public and staff 
  • Visual amenity
  • Dumped hazardous materials 
  • Significant cost to all rate payers  
  • Promotes a ‘throw-away’ culture that is not sustainable
  • Road access issues prevents collection for rural properties.