More people are becoming aware of household items dumped illegally in nature reserves around Stawell, a district land facilitator said.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It comes after Project Platypus’ Andrea Mitchell received a text message from a concerned Stawell resident who found a couch frame dumped on the East West Road in the Deep lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
Ms Mitchell said the couch frame would have been dumped recently.
”They will be picking it up and sending it to the transfer station – I am glad to see locals in action and on the ball when it comes to illegally dumped rubbish, but sorry to know it happens so frequently,” she said.
“It is so disappointing to see that people are brazenly dumping rubbish after the community’s effort in continuously cleaning up rubbish in the Ironbarks.”
Ms Mitchell has been working on a project, Whole lot of Rubbish - Cleaning up the Ironbarks, and also helped orchestrate a rubbish rebate at the Stawell Transfer Station to encourage correct disposal of waste.
The rebate which received state government funding allows Stawell residents to dump one tyre and mattress per person at the site for free.
Up to 30 tyres and 30 mattresses had been collected so far.
“Our recent campaign is a great initiative for everyone to be involved in,” she said.
“It makes you aware of your own rubbish and it keeps these items out of our nature conservation areas.
“We have a crew of people coming to Deep Lead Nature Reserve to collect all the rubbish, especially green waste, that has been found (GPS tagged) in the coming weeks.”
The rebate will finish at the end of the month.
Ms Mitchell said the campaign had created more awareness about the risks associated with illegal rubbish dumping.
“It’s gotten people talking and a lot of people knew about it,” she said.
“Stawell is not a big town, so for that we have had a good number of people acting on our rebate.”
But Ms Mitchell said more needed to be done to help people curb bad habits. “It has been great work by some, disappointment about others.”