The effort was part of a joint Griffith City Council (GCC), Department of Primary Industry, Murrumbidgee Irrigation and NSW Environment Protection Authority project to target illegal dumping in the Griffith area.

The project targeted the clean-up of dumping hotspots, community awareness campaigns and the monitoring of hotspots.

Council’s compliance co-ordinator, Kelly McNicol, said the school had volunteered to clean-up an identified hotspot on Scenic Hill.

“We were able to collect between 150 and 200 kilograms of rubbish in just four hours, most of it was fast food wrappers,” Mr McNicol said.

“In the past 18 months we’ve collected more than 180 tonnes of illegally dumped waste.”

MI chief executive Brett Jones said it was pleasing to see the positive results that could be achieved for the community by working together in partnership.

“This event was registered under the Clean Up Australia campaign and I thank the students for their efforts,” Mr Jones said.

“They were an enthusiastic group and did a great job in cleaning up an area which is frequented by many in our community.” 

Mr McNicol said Griffith City Council was given $128,000 from the NSW Environment Protection Authority to combat illegal dumping.

“We have a detailed plan to utilise that money and one part is to get the community involved,” he said.