By Cameron Lucadou-Wells
GARBAGE dumpers outside Springvale charity shops will be targeted in an undercover operation by Greater Dandenong officers.
The scourge has encouraged scavenging outside St Vincents and resulted in the charity store having to send the donations and garbage to landfill, at its own expense.
Among the offenders are after-hours donors, many of whom didn’t realise they were committing an offence.
In a test operation, a litter prevention officer in a marked council car had identified offenders at known dumping sites on a Sunday.
The council is to begin an undercover operation at sites.
Officers will take photos of dumping and use the images as evidence for infringement notices of up to $5600.
Greater Dandenong mayor Youhorn Chea said ‘‘the amount of garbage and out-of-hours donations at charity stores like St Vinnies each Monday morning has become a serious problem’’.
“St Vinnies volunteers have been generous with their efforts in cleaning up the site each Monday – we hope the operation will help make it known that offenders will be fined and reduce dumping into the future.’’
St Vinnies accepts donations during the week during opening hours and up until 5pm on Saturdays.
