A $21.5 million funding boost will bolster Victoria’s Illegal Dumping Taskforce and deliver extra financial support for councils and public land managers to clean up illegally dumped waste.
Announcing the funding, Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos said there was no excuse for illegal dumping.
“Anyone who thinks they can get away with it should think again,” said Dimopoulos.
Illegal dumping is a national concern, costing local councils and land managers thousands of dollars to clean up.
The new funding includes $8.5 million to help ease the burden of clean-up costs for illegally dumped and toxic waste in public spaces. It will cover up to 50 per cent of the clean-up costs in situations where all avenues to trace the perpetrator and recover costs have been exhausted or are not feasible.
To catch more people flouting the law and hold them to account, $13 million will help the Illegal Dumping Taskforce ramp up surveillance, enforcement and clean-up efforts across the state.
The taskforce will be led by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), which will work with the Conservation Regulator and undertake enforcement activities using expanded intelligence and monitoring to detect and respond to waste crimes in key locations.
The taskforce will also review fines and cost recovery for illegal dumping and hold offenders to account through the courts.
Rubbish dumping and littering on public land carries a maximum penalty of $3,951,800 for businesses and $800,000 for individuals or five years imprisonment, or both.
For more information, visit: www.epa.vic.gov.au
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