Garbage & Environmental Services

Beach Cleaning

Port Phillip Beach Cleaning

Port Phillip has an extensive street and beach cleaning regime, over the summer months these services are boosted to ensure that Port Phillip deals with the environmental impacts of increased visitation and use.  A combination of mechanical and manual cleaning keeps Port Phillip's beaches clean of litter and seaweed.

The level of cleaning varies with the temperature, beach attendances and special events.

Summer

In the summer months, our beaches are cleaned of litter and seaweed daily starting at 4am and finishing at 10am so the beaches are ready and waiting for you. The mechanical cleaning is increased to include Saturdays and Sundays on key beaches including daily mechanical clean of St Kilda Beach.

Winter

In the winter months the beaches are mechanically cleaned once per week in combination.

View the Beach Street Cleaning Zones for details. 

Clean Beaches are Everyone's Responsibility

Keeping the streets and beaches of Port Phillip clean is a responsibility shared by all - the council, state government, residents, traders and visitors.

The council's cleaning contractor, Streetsahead Cleaning Service, implements a rigorous manual and mechanical schedule all year round from the early morning to the late of night, to keep our city looking good.

The annual street and beach cleaning budget for Port Phillip is $3,500,000. Of this, $685,000 is spent on beach cleaning which includes a grant of $250,000 from the Victorian State Government.

Defence Against Litter

To further our beach cleaning efforts, the council will use a bright aqua mechanical beach cleaner along the foreshore in summer.

Using a combined sieving and raking action, the beach cleaner has the improved function of picking up cigarette butts and other small pieces of litter such as glass, as well as the usual litter that is left on the beach. Of the litter left on our beaches, 58 per cent of it is cigarette butts.

Another benefit of the beach cleaner is that it can operate on wet and dry sand.

The beach cleaner will be used in combination with the council's manual beach cleaners who reach inaccessible areas of the foreshore such as vegetation, sand dunes and car parks. They also empty the 250 foreshore litter bins daily.

Syringes, Needlestick Injuries and Education

See syringes for detailed information about:

• Syringe disposal contract
• What to do if you find discarded syringes
• Needlestick injuries
• Awareness program
  

Condoms (Discarded)

If you find a used condom on the beach or near your property and do not wish to remove it yourself, you can report it online using eServices. 

If you have a question, concern or comment about the cleanliness of a beach use eServices to tell us online. If you prefer phone ASSIST on (03) 9209 6777 or  (03) 9209 6765.