Stirling’s illegal dumping campaign cleans up at 2026 WasteSorted Awards

Communities across the state are grappling with illegal dumping and the impacts it has on amenity, public safety, the environment and budgets.

With illegal dumping cases rising to well over 6,000 per year, the City reviewed its processes and introduced a new approach in January 2025, designed to make it easier for people to do the right thing.

One element was a marketing campaign called “Undelivered”, which aimed to address a lack of community awareness about the City’s on-demand verge-side waste collection services.

A play on the proliferation of on-demand delivery services, the campaign promoted the range of items the City can “undeliver” for free, including lounges, mattresses, white goods, e-waste and bulk waste through the skip bin collection service.

The marketing campaign coincided with an expansion of the City’s community waste avoidance workshops and a new compliance program that shifted the focus from reactive clean-ups to prevention and deterrence.

Under the new compliance measures, led by the City’s Waste Compliance Officer, illegally dumped items are marked with tape or stickers that note the case is under investigation, with maximum penalties of $62,500 under the Environmental Protection Act 1986.

This highly visible messaging encourages the owner of the items to retrieve them to avoid fines while also reducing the number of duplicate public reports.

Flyers with information about illegal dumping and the City’s range of waste disposal options are dropped in nearby letterboxes and the site is monitored to determine if further action is needed.

Instead of creating an expectation that the City will promptly pick up any items that are illegally dumped, the approach puts the onus back on the person doing the dumping.

The results have been emphatic, with a 14 per cent reduction in illegal dumping across the City in 2025 and around 42 per cent of cases self-corrected by residents.

The reduction in illegal dumping was even greater in areas targeted by the Undelivered campaign, suggesting residents would prefer to choose appropriate waste disposal options.

In recognition of the positive impacts of the new approach, the City received the Local Government Award at last week’s 2026 WasteSorted Awards at Crown Perth.

“Local governments spend millions of dollars every year dealing with illegal dumping in WA,” City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin AM said.

“Unfortunately, you’re always going to have people who do the wrong thing regardless of the harm their waste may cause or the cost to other ratepayers.

“The success of this strategy shows there are a lot of members of our community who will start doing the right thing if they know about it and if they think it’s reasonable.

“By providing free and convenient services and focusing on education and awareness, we’ve started to see some genuine behavioural change.”