A blitz on notorious spots for rubbish dumping nabbed more than 20 people in one weekend, offloading broken items and waste on a charity store. It also caught several people dumping trash in parks and on nature strips.
Offenders were caught throwing broken furniture and tattered mattresses from trucks and cars onto a footpath at the charity store, directly beneath signs warning against illegal dumping. One man was caught dumping a truck full of items in a park late at night.
“Dumping rubbish is unacceptable behaviour, and when you force a charity store to deal with your junk, and the cost of its removal – that’s despicable,” Moreland City Council Mayor Councillor Lambros Tapinos said.
“We wanted to send a message that dumping rubbish in parks and on footpaths will not be tolerated in Moreland. I think we made our point quite clear.”
Community response to the surveillance operation was positive, with residents sending letters of appreciation to local newspapers.
“We were satisfied with the feedback,” Mayor Tapinos said.
“Residents were not happy that people were abusing the goodwill of charity stores to dump unwanted goods. They were not happy that their parks were being polluted and made unusable, and their rates were being used to clean up someone else’s junk. It is important to show residents we are doing something about it.”
A detective agency was hired to perform the sting operation, with footage reviewed by Council’s Civic Safety and Amenity Manager to determine if Council would initiate prosecutions.
“Without compromising investigations or legal proceedings, we were also able to create a short video of the surveillance efforts which was put on our website,” Mayor Tapinos said.
“This was a great tool not only for letting the community know things were happening, but to educate some residents that junk donations were not generous, and that their actions had consequences.”
