City of Greater Dandenong’s new customer request dashboard has revealed an astonishing pile of hundreds of illegal rubbish dumping reports – which is costing the council more than $1 million a year to clean up.
Council received 692 dumping requests for the month of June on top of an existing 391 requests at the start of the month.
Since February, there has been an average call-out of 797 a month.
These numbers are where the council arranges for the dumped rubbish to be collected and excludes incidents where there’s a chance of prosecution.
Overall, council spends $1.1 million a year, picking up 1000 tonnes of dumped rubbish.
“The landfill gate fee and landfill levy is $202.94 per tonne which will both increase again this financial year, so that cost (alone) is around $200,000 per year,” city futures executive director Sanjay Manivasagasivam says.
“However, this doesn’t factor in the additional costs of our staff and vehicles to pick up the rubbish, and extra costs for disposing of mattresses, e-waste, tyres, asbestos, gas bottles and other dangerous materials.
“The cost to our community of dumped rubbish is very high.
“We could be spending this money on other useful services, programs or amenities for our residents.
“If people witness rubbish dumping, we encourage them to note the registration number of vehicles and any other information that would help identify the dumpers, and to report it to Council.
“We investigate and pursue infringements and prosecutions against rubbish dumpers whenever possible.”
According to the dashboard, the council is meeting its 10-business-day service standard to action the requests.
During April and May, there were dips in the number of requests actioned as new requests poured in.
In June the council cleared the majority of the backlog, collecting more than 800 reported dumpings.
The month ended with only 277 requests – the lowest since February this year.
In April, Star Journal previously reported on Greater Dandenong and Victoria’s illegal dumping reports to the Environment Protection Authority. i
Since 2023, there had been 1,655 reports in Greater Dandenong alone.
The surge in illegal dumping is associated with cost-of-living pressures as many are unable to pay the fees for a proper disposal.
As mentioned in the article, Stud Road is a well-known dumping spot due to the high turnover of rental and social housing in the area.
Reports of illegal dumping to be made via EPA’s 24-hour hotline at 1300 372 842.
