By Alesha Capone
Illegal rubbish dumping along Woods Road in Truganina is causing a headache for both residents and Wyndham council.
A resident captured images of rubbish dumped on along the road and last week sent them to Star Weekly.
The resident said people living in the Ellarook estate have lodged “numerous complaints” about the illegal dumping with Wyndham council.
“Dumping has continued during lockdown – this rubbish has been there for weeks,” the man said.
Council director of city operations, Stephen Thorpe, said Wyndham city “takes a zero tolerance approach to rubbish dumping”.
“Since January, council has received 17 requests to clean up dumped rubbish in the area around Woods Road, Truganina and all dumped rubbish was removed earlier this month,” Mr Thorpe said.
“Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and restrictions, council’s litter crews have been unable to attend locations as often as we would like, and we are currently working our way through a backlog of requests.”
Mr Thorpe said the council officers spent thousands of hours every year collecting rubbish that has been illegally dumped.
“This is an unfair impost on all our residents, the majority of whom do the right thing,” he said.
“Illegal litter dumping is a complex community problem across many municipalities in Victoria, and Wyndham has adopted a number of methods to try and reduce the amount of dumped litter.
“We have dedicated waste education officers who aim to educate the community about their options for removing waste, and we offer three hard rubbish collections per household, per year.”
Mr Thorpe said the council needed the community’s support to help keep Wyndham clean.
He encouraged residents to report illegal rubbish dumping on 1300 023 411 or via digital.wyndham.vic.gov.au/reportissue/#/
To book a hard rubbish collection, visit: www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/services/waste-recycling/book-hard-green-waste-collection
