Council officers rummage through bags of illegally dumped rubbish to track down offenders
Sick of rubbish being dumped in the streets, Melbourne council officers are targeting offenders by rummaging through the garbage for key evidence as they crackdown on dodgy dumpers.
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Melbourne council staff are rifling through piles of illegally dumped rubbish to uncover identifying details so they hunt down offenders.
The hunt for personal information has yielded a doubling in the number of infringements and more than $440,000 in fines last year.
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Public awareness of the ability to report rubbish problems has also increased the number of cases.
Council environment chairwoman Cathy Oke said in a growing city, correctly disposing of rubbish and finding ways of handling large volumes of rubbish was a key challenge.
“While those who dump rubbish represent a small portion of residents, ratepayers and business owners, we want everyone to take pride in our city and to help tackle the war on waste,’’ Cr Oke said.
“This is why Council works hard to educate business owners and residents about their responsibilities, and have made it easier than ever to report instances of dumped rubbish, or to book a hard rubbish collection.’’
The council claims that every report of dumped rubbish in investigated by local laws officers who are on patrol every day.
Their investigation may include rummaging through each bag of dumped rubbish to find identifying details, such as invoices or receipts, which are photographed to track down the offender, a council spokesman said. Fines of $322 apply for littering.
The number of dumped rubbish incidents reported was almost the same in 2017 and 2018 at about 10 a day.
But in 2018, 1378 infringement notices were issued — almost double the 2017 — for a total of $441,086 in fines, thanks to an increase in the number of staff tackling the issue.
Infringements also apply to waste discharged into drains, usually from commercial kitchens, and attracts fines of up to $1000.
But sometimes, misidentified dumped rubbish was reported such as when the waste is waiting for council collection.
Residents are reporting incidents by phone, in person, online through the council website and increasingly through the Snap Send Solve reporting app.
Data from the app revealed a 130 per cent increase in the number of City of Melbourne reports from January 2016 to December 2018.
Snap Send Solve founder Danny Gorog said rubbish reports accounted for almost 20 per cent of all issues send through the app.
“And of all those reports, ‘dumped rubbish’ is growing at the fastest rate and evokes some of the most passionate commentary on our reports,’’ Mr Gorog said.
“We are really impressed by the care and passion shown by reporters when it comes to this topic. They truly want to keep their local area looking its best.’’
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