Is there building rubble in your local bushland reserve or an abandoned fridge in your street? 

This is illegal dumping, and is not only an eyesore, but puts you at risk of fire and injury, pollutes your neighbourhood and can harm native wildlife.

And if it’s happening in your suburb, we want to know, so we can hold dumpers to account and stamp out this anti-social behaviour.

Illegal dumping happens when individuals or businesses dispose of waste or litter on land or in water without legal approval. It includes:

• dumping rubbish or green waste in the bush or by the side of a road
• abandoning items on a footpath when there’s no pre-booked council collection
• adding to other people's bulky goods clean-up piles 
• asbestos waste
• littering.

Recent updates to Environment Protection have strengthened our powers to prosecute offenders, including doubling of penalties and increased fines for repeat offenders and large-scale waste dumping. 

Our investigators have issued numerous waste and litter fines over the past few months.

In a recent case, residents in Bantry Bay Road, Frenchs Forest reported a ute entering the street and the driver unloading vegetation waste at the side of the road. On arrival, our officers discovered a second load being dumped by the same person. The offender admitted the activities, was directed to clean up the discarded vegetation on the spot and was ultimately prosecuted and fined $1,000. 

Our Rangers can’t be everywhere at once; so we rely on the eyes of the community to keep us informed about illegal dumping. If you do see dumped material in your neighbourhood or bushland areas - whether you know who’s responsible or not – let us know, so we can take action to identify those involved, issue fines and arrange removal of material. 

For residents wanting to dispose legally of their end-of-life items, every household has the opportunity to book two free bulky good collections in every 12-month period.
 
Or for on-the-spot disposal, you can take your waste to Kimbriki Recycling and Resource Centre, for a fee.  Alternatively the items may be able to be disposed for free at one of our many drop-off waste reduction events.

Building and vegetation waste can also be taken to Kimbriki, where you can substantially reduce disposal prices by separating waste loads for recycling.

Together we can all work harder to stop illegal dumping and maintain our beautiful Northern Beaches and reduce what we waste.