SOUTHERN Downs Regional Council will introduce electronic monitoring systems to waste sites, to ward off illegal activity.

Although council did notice a reduction in illegal dumping since the seven sites were locked -up, the monitoring system will continue to keep an eye on the sites.

Southern Downs Regional Council's director of planning and environment Ken Harris said the securing of the sites was necessary.

"Dumping was already a problem at these unmanned waste facilities and one of the reasons we chose to secure them," Mr Harris said.

"In general, since the changes, there have not been too many issues at the facilities."

In collaboration with the surveillance, regular patrols will continue to keep dumping to a minimum.

"Even though it is still early days, our officers have noted some improvement (reduction) in illegal dumping compared to before the gates were locked," Mr Harris said.

"So far we have had to clean up waste out the front of the Glen Aplin transfer station on just two occasions.

"We have had to replace the lock at Glen Aplin once and Ballandean twice," he said.

One local who is doing his part in keeping Warwick tidy is Graham Buchner, who attends volunteer "litter pick-ups" on a weekly basis.

He said although he has not seen it, the locked waste facilities may encourage people to dump there waste in other places.

"There will be some additional dumping because of the costing and it's mainly to do with commercial and industrial stuff, so I'm not talking about household waste," Mr Buchner said.

He said the community needed to accept the charges and move on.

"Nobody agrees with the charges but somewhere along the line, you've got to pay," Mr Buchner said.