Illegal dumping

Littering and the illegal dumping of waste has the potential to cause health and safety risks for both people and the natural environment.

The Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 defines litter and illegal dumping as the following:

Littering 

Litter has been defined as the deposit of waste at a place that is an amount less than 200L in volume.

Common types of litter include cigarette butts, drink bottles, fast food wrappers, material from a trailer that is poorly secured, grass clippings swept into the gutter, fishing tackle.

Dangerous Littering

Dangerous littering is deposited litter equalling an amount less than 200L in volume, that causes or is likely to cause harm to a person or the environment.

Such example include; throwing a lit cigarette onto dry grass in extreme fire danger conditions, smashing a glass bottle and leave the broken glass on a footpath, leaving a syringe in a public place other than in a container intended to receive used syringes.

Illegal Dumping

Illegal dumping has been defined as the deposit of waste at a place that is an amount equalling greater than 200L in volume.

Dumping is unsightly, degrades the local environment, reduces property value and costs rate payers a substantial amount of money each year to clean up. Illegal dumping includes items such as bags of rubbish, garden waste, building materials, household goods, abandoned cars, used tyres and hazardous waste.