Millicent Spencer
Hume mayor Joseph Haweil is considering upping council fines for dumping rubbish to $10,000.
Currently people can be fined $200, but Cr Haweil said he was investigating whether the fine could be increased to $10,000 in a bid to curb rubbish dumping which he said “is on steroids” in Hume.
Cr Haweil said illegal dumping of rubbish in the Hume area is at an all time high.
“[I] declare a war on dumping in Hume,” he said.
“Anyone who is going and dumping in the street, there is absolutely no excuse.
“Some people are just selfish and lazy, they may not want to put in a hard waste collection or they don’t want to pay for it to be disposed [of].”
Cr Haweil said the council spent $8 million picking up rubbish in the last year.
“Sixty-four per cent [of waste] is general household waste that could go into their red bin at home,” he said.
“Initially we thought residents weren’t aware of the services available but the reality is we do a lot and try and let people know.
“We need to do something quite aggressive on this issue as it keeps growing.”
Hume residents are entitled to two, three cubic metre collections at different times of the year or one collection of six cubic metres.
Broadmeadows Progress Association’s Sonja Rutherford said while dumping in the municipality is a very big problem, more needs to be done to address the systemic issues around waste.
“We’ve got to take an all round view [and] look at the cause of why people want to throw rubbish out,” Ms Rutherford said.
“[There is an] enormous push commercially to buy things they don’t need.
“[The rubbish] is predominantly broken poorly built furniture and plastic toys … items that have built in obsolescence.”
Ms Rutherford said a series of community discussions should be held to address the issue of rubbish in its entirety.
“We need to address the broad aspect of dumping, and punishment is one way to do this but it isn’t addressing the problem,” she said.
“If you really want to solve it there is no use in just going out and yelling about it.
“We need to have a community forum where we can discuss it together.”
Craigieburn Residents Association president Debra Phippen said having lived in the area for 17 years and observed patterns of dumping, the problem seems to be with renters.
“People who are renting [and their] landlords don’t tell them they have a tip voucher,” she said.
“There needs to be a publicity campaign to let people know how they get rid of rubbish.”
Cr Haweil said mass mailout campaign will be conducted over the next few weeks, with residents receiving information in several languages via the form of a letter in their post box.
“We’re taking a multicultural support approach to communications so we reach as many people as possible,” he said.
