Victorians forking out millions for councils to pick up dumped rubbish

Victorians are picking up a $30m bill every year for rubbish left illegally on the side of the road by inconsiderate dumpers to be taken to the tip.

Victorians are footing a $30m bill for their neighbours’ illegally dumped rubbish to be taken to the tip every year, with a major clothes recycling company threatening to pull community bins amid “out of control” dumping.

Councils say they are struggling to keep up with an increase in people flouting anti-dumping laws, with some municipalities forking out millions on rubbish removal.

Melton council in Melbourne’s west collects about 6000 tonnes of dumped waste per year — enough to fill about 200 trucks, costing more than $3m annually.

People flouting anti-dumping laws by leaving hard rubbish next to clothes recycling bins Picture: Supplied

Mayor Steve Abboushi said council “can’t keep up” with the increased loads, with only about a quarter of residents using their two annual hard rubbish entitlements.

“A lot of items we see that have been dumped could have been taken to the new recycling centre at our Melton Recycling Facility and dropped off for free,” he said.

“Our disposal fees are lower than other areas across Melbourne’s west, and we have a new resale shop to donate items that can be reused. There are really no excuses.”

Footage obtained by the Herald Sun showed a woman dumping several boxes, a mattress and bedframe on the side of the road in Manor Lakes in Melbourne’s west.

A woman is captured dumping a mattress on the side of the road at Manor Lakes Picture: Supplied

In the 2023/24 financial year Hume City Council — in Melbourne’s north — responded to 13,400 incidents of illegal dumping.

Fines for dumpers in most councils range between $300 and $2000, while businesses can be slugged up to $10,000 in some areas.

The dumping problem has also hit charities and clothing recycling companies who say their community bins are regularly “inundated” with bags of household waste.

Joe Carbone, executive chair of clothes recycler SCR Group, said he had rostered on staff to drive acrosssites to retrieve rubbish to take to the tip.

“We spend probably just over $1m cleaning up our sites and these are in the public domain like carparks and community centres … it’s becoming a lot more out of control.”

“We’re here to provide a free public service for people to turn up and donate and dispose of their used clothing so we keep it out of landfill but it’s almost becoming unviable to provide that.

Rubbish dumped next to a SCR clothes collection bin at a suburban oval Picture: Supplied

“We’ve had staff put on a roster to go to our sites with trucks to collect rubbish to take to tips and then we get the welcomed bill at the tip.”

Mr Carbone said he feared the “business would only stretch so far” when the new waste levy was introduced.

From July 1 the waste levy will increase by about $40 to $167.90 per tonne, bringing it in line with NSW.

“Our company will have to consider pulling out some of these clothing collection hubs in the worst sites and these sites are heavily used in the community, upwards of thousands of items of clothing a day.”

According to the state’s Environmental Protection Authority the most common types of dumped rubbish are household and liquid waste.