Wyndham is a litterbug hotspot, new Environment Protection Authority (EPA) data reveals.
The EPA’s litter report ranks Wyndham ninth in the state for litterbug reports, with 787 incidents of people throwing rubbish from cars during the 2015-16 financial year.
A total 12,106 reports were lodged during this period, with Hobsons Bay topping the list with 1489 reports, followed by Melbourne (1291 reports) and Brimbank (1024).
The report also found that four Wyndham suburbs – Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Point Cook and Tarneit – were in the top 10 suburbs for littering.
But Harry van Moorst from Wyndham Litter Watch questioned the data.
“When they’re talking about Wyndham’s figures, they’re talking about less than seven per cent of all the complaints that have been made,” he said.
“The top 10 accounts for less than half of all the reports they’ve had.
“There’s so much statistical bias, it’s hard to see what it really means. There’s a lot of littering that never gets reported of course.This is only the stuff that the EPA has had reported to them.”
Mr van Moorst said while cigarette butts accounted for the majority of litter reports, the dumping of plastic was also a problem.
He’s keen to see container deposit legislation in Victoria, so that people return plastic bottles and aluminium drink cans at nominated depots and receive 10 cents per item in return.
The EPA report was released just weeks after a Hoppers Crossing business was slapped with a $5000 fine after being caught dumping used car tyres on vacant land in Point Cook.
Wyndham chief executive Kelly Grigsby said the council had received 1614 complaints relating to litter and illegal dumping so far this year.
Last calendar year, a total of 2009 complaints were made about the same issues.
