A Diggers Rest resident has taken the issue of illegal rubbish dumping into her own hands, voluntarily collecting and disposing of roadside waste.
Haley Liverton said she and daughter Olivia have been collecting illegally dumped rubbish since moving to Victoria from Queensland in 2022.
“The amount of litter down Plumpton [Road] just blew our minds, so we grabbed chaff bags and filled a bag up each and made a competition of it to boost motivation,” Ms Liverton said.
“It is also a way for her to learn that sometimes we have to work hard for nothing but a sense of pride by doing the right thing for our state and community.
“We use our hands with gloves, chaff bags, our thighs, and the strength and determination we hold to make a difference.”
In her time cleaning up rubbish, Ms Liverton said she had “seen first-hand the scale and danger of illegal dumping in our area,” including hazardous items.
“I really believe I’ve seen just about anything you could imagine. Unmentionable items that make you turn green in disgust to counterfeit money, jewellery, stolen goods, discarded drugs of every type, dumped kittens, garden plants that I take home and replant – things that make you laugh and things that make you cry,” she said.
“We come across a decent amount of metal, so to cover some of the dump fees we scrap the metal, this does not cover full costs but it chips in. It also saves the council tractors … becoming damaged when they mow.”
Ms Liverton said that she believes if councils redirected clean-up and enforcement costs towards subsidised or free dumping options, “we could see a real drop in illegal dumping.”
“In states like Queensland, where waste disposal is free, these problems are far less common,” she said.
Currently Melton council deals with 3,500 tonnes of illegally dumped waste annually at a cost of more than $5 million and diverts resources from other essential council services.
In the April 28 council meeting, council officers were asked to investigate the feasibility of a ‘name and shame’ approach and incentive program.
