BY OLIVIA PORTELL

Lake Macquarie Council has been given a 71 thousand dollar grant as part of a statewide initiative to combat illegal dumping.

The grant comes as part of an attempt to decrease illegal dumping by 30 percent by 2020.

The money will assist with cleaning up potentially dangerous waste, such as asbestos, that has been dumped around the region.

Member for Lake Macquarie, Greg Piper, says that the region is particularly bad and that the amount of rubbish being carelessly dumped is worrying.

“Anybody that drives around the area, you will see rubbish dumped illegally on the side of the road, but as soon as you get a little bit off the beaten track, you just see people go down and they dump amazing amounts of rubbish,” he says.

Piper says that people must change their ways, and consider the environment and the people who have to clean up after them when dumping their waste.

“They don’t care what’s in that rubbish, and I know the council, and other councils, have been battling illegal disposal of materials such as asbestos, and this is very concerning, particularly for anyone that then has to go and clean this up,” he says.

“There are a lot of issues there, but certainly in this day and age people take so little personal responsibility for the waste that they produce.”

Piper believes the grant will be a great help to the region, and that there are a number of volunteers working with the council to combat the issue.

“We have Landcare, we have sustainable neighbourhood community groups, so there’s no shortage of goodwill out there to do the right thing, but often there’s a lack of that practical resource in the finances, and hopefully this goes a long way to help.”