Illegal dumping is costing Hume City Council millions of dollars annually, with the outer-growth council among the hardest hit in Victoria. Hume has spent $4.2 million responding to dumping incidents in the past financial year, and infringement notices have risen by more than 70 per cent over four years.

“We don’t have all the answers, but it is an enormous problem here in our city,” Cr Moore said. “I’ve been on council for ten years and it’s been a problem for the entire time I’ve served.”

Speaking to Chris Eddy for VLGA Connect, Hume Mayor Cr Carly Moore said the council receives around 20,000 reports of illegal dumping every year — a figure she described as “ridiculously large.”

Cr Moore said the council’s response had shifted over time from an education-first approach toward stronger enforcement, after education measures failed to deliver the expected results. Hume has stood up a dedicated waste response team to investigate reports and identify offenders, and residents are entitled to five free hard rubbish collections per year — an offer Cr Moore said was under-utilised.

Craigieburn is the hardest-hit area, accounting for around 25 per cent of dumping in the municipality, with significant volumes also reported in Mickleham and Broadmeadows. Cr Moore distinguished between household dumping in residential areas and commercial or industrial waste dumped in rural parts of the municipality, the latter linked to landfill disposal costs for commercial operators.

The council recently took enforcement action at a Wildwood Road site in partnership with the EPA, over industrial waste and burning involving materials suspected to contain asbestos.

Hume is also working with Monash University’s BehaviourWorks Australia on a research partnership aimed at understanding the behavioural drivers behind illegal dumping, alongside its enforcement approach.

Funding shortfall

Cr Moore said the council spends up to $5 million a year addressing illegal dumping but has so far secured only $6,000 through the state’s illegal dumping task force funding, which has faced criticism from the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) over its effectiveness. The $21 million task force fund has drawn scrutiny after councils reported limited access to it.

Cr Moore said eligibility restrictions were a key barrier, noting councils cannot claim funding for cleanups where a hard rubbish collection could have been booked instead.

“In terms of feeling supported, we are absolutely not feeling like that funding is doing what it was intended to do,” Cr Moore said.

Hume’s council has listed a coordinated, multi-level government approach to waste as one of its top six advocacy priorities.

“We need a coordinated approach,” Cr Moore said. “We really want to have a conversation about how we can support them and how we can work together to find a solution to what is a big problem in our community.”