Hume and Whittlesea have among the highest reported rates of littering offences in Victoria, a new report has found.
A litter campaign undertaken by the Environment Protection Authority found that Hume had the seventh-highest number of reported instances of littering in the state, ahead of Whittlesea, which ranked tenth in Victoria.
The Victorian campaign ran from December last year to the end of March, with an overall total of 9612 litter reports made to the EPA. Of those, 318 instances were reported in Hume, with 287 in Whittlesea.
Hobsons Bay had the most litter reports made to the EPA in the state – 623 of them in the campaign’s four-month period.
Melbourne City Council’s municipality ranked second (514) followed by Brimbank (387) Casey (349), Geelong (337) and Wyndham with 320 reports of littering made by residents to the EPA.
The report found that in Hume and Whittlesea, the most frequent form of littering was people throwing cigarette butts or rubbish from their car windows while driving. This accounted for more than 80 per cent of reported cases.
Acting chief executive officer of the EPA Katrina McKenzie said the report found that most littering offenders were living in the west and outer northern suburbs of Melbourne.
She said the campaign highlighted that more Victorians were reporting instances to the EPA.
“We increased our number of registered litter reporters by 39 per cent on the same time last year, which shows that people are more aware of the problem and willing to do something about it,” she said.
She warned that people caught polluting faced fines of $288 for a small piece of rubbish or unlit cigarette, increasing to $577 for a lit cigarette.
Ms McKenzie said that litter remained one of Victoria’s most costly burdens with almost $80 million spent every year to clean up pollution.
Plenty Valley conservation group spokeswoman Gillian Borrack said litter was an ongoing issue for Melbourne’s north with people dropping litter from their cars and dumping hard trash, including mattresses, on suburban streets.
To report a litterbug, call 1300 372 842.
