Dumped waste

Learn about dumped waste, its impacts on human health and the environment, and the law.

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In the community, the 2 most common types of dumped waste reported to us are:

  • household waste (19% of all waste reports)
  • liquid waste (17% of all waste reports).

Dumped tyres and batteries are some of the least reported types of waste. However, they are a major fire risk and need to be reported.

Some dumped waste stands out – for example, whitegoods and furniture dumped on a roadside. However, there are 3 types of dumped waste that are more difficult to recognise:

  • construction waste dumped on vacant land or other construction sites
  • asbestos, which can be in sheets or blocks or can be present in a wide range of dumped materials
  • a pile of soil – for example, in a park – which may not seem out of place until testing shows it's contaminated.

Building rubble, asbestos and contaminated soil are often dumped to avoid paying waste levies. These materials can be dangerous for our community and difficult to remove from our environment.

Types of illegally stored or abandoned waste on commercial and industrial properties include:

To learn more about reporting dumped waste, including what happens when you report to us, visit Report illegal waste dumping.

Dumped waste and the law

In Victoria, you break the law if you dump, abandon or bury any kind of waste at a place not authorised to accept it. This includes private land.

The general environmental duty requires everyone to eliminate or reduce their risk of harm to human health and the environment. Dumping waste does not meet this duty. You must make sure that your waste does not become litter.

Waste duties apply to anyone who generates, transports or receives waste.

The duty to manage contaminated land may apply if dumped waste contaminates land or groundwater. It applies even if you did not cause the contamination. Landlords may be left with legal liability from tenants who abandon waste on their property. This liability includes:

Landlords and real estate agents need to be aware of the risks associated with tenants who store or manage waste on leased premises. For more information, visit Guidelines for landlords and agents: Minimise your risk from the storage and abandonment of waste.

If your dumped waste causes pollution, the duty to take action to respond to harm caused by a pollution incident may apply.

There are penalties for not meeting your duties.

You may need a permission to conduct activities involving waste that is pre-classified as reportable priority waste. You break the law if you do not meet your waste duties and permission conditions.

Our role in dumped waste

We:

  • regulate the transport, storage and disposal of waste for all industries
  • provide industry guidance to help waste producers, transporters and receivers to understand their duties and obligations and do the right thing
  • respond to reports of dumped or abandoned waste.

We focus on hazardous, large-scale illegal waste disposal practices in industries. When other categories of waste are dumped, we forward reports to local councils and other agencies for their attention.

Large-scale illegal waste disposal often involves criminal networks. They are motivated by avoiding the costs of legal waste disposal.

We work to:

  • disrupt illegal business models
  • develop innovative regulatory interventions
  • identify who is disposing of waste illegally so they can be held to account.

We use a range of regulatory tools to find, investigate and prosecute illegal waste disposal offences. These include:

  • data analytics
  • intelligence, including inter-agency networks
  • surveillance, including drones and ground-penetrating radar
  • site inspections
  • co-regulatory partnerships between government agencies, law enforcement, local councils and key stakeholders
  • formal investigations and prosecutions.

Impact of dumped waste on your health

Dumped, abandoned or illegally stored waste materials can impact your health by:

  • polluting the air with dust and odour
  • attracting vermin that are carriers for disease
  • contaminating land, stormwater and waterways.

Waste fires pose risks to human health and the environment from smoke. For more information on the risks of waste fires, visit Combustible waste.

How we manage waste crime through reporting

Dumped waste is not always reported. This makes it difficult to know if there are more cases of illegal waste dumping now than in the past.

What we do know is that:

  • Victorians are increasingly reporting environmental crime
  • our ability to track hazardous waste is better than it's ever been.

Reporting gives us data to better understand and act upon waste crime by:

  • linking crimes and identifying perpetrators
  • revealing trends in waste crime.

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