Rubbish is everywhere you look in some nature reserves, it lines the forest floor and dangles from trees.

A portion of the Mt Pleasant pine plantation's road surface is literally made of disintegrated mattress.

And the community-minded people who are trying to help clean up can't keep up.

Now they are fed up and want some action.

"It's disgusting and it's degrading our environment," said Ballarat Geocaching member Darryl Schulze, who was part of a team to clean the Mt Pleasant plantation.

"A classic example of how when one person does something to the environment it's not a big deal, but when a lot of people follow suit, it's a disaster."

Mr Schulze was part of a clean-up operation where more than 20 members of Ballarat Geocaching - a local orienteering group - and their children spent a day cleaning the plantation earlier this month.

Despite fully loading two skip bins, Mr Schulze said the operation barely removed 50 per cent of the rubbish in the immediate area.

Arm chairs, dozens of mattresses, doors, car wheels and tyres, carpets and hundreds of plastic bottles can be seen in the area bordered by Main Road and Brittain Street.

Despite several stories in The Courier in June, rubbish dumping in Ballarat's nature reserves only seems to be increasing.

Canadian and Creswick state forests remain rubbish dumping hotspots.

Mr Schulze said there were two reasons why dumping rubbish was increasing.

"People dump more rubbish now because of the amount the council charges at the transfer station to drop off rubbish - particularly mattresses - and a lack of enforcement by the relevant authorities," he said.

"People shouldn't do it and we need to take away the incentive to dump."

He said solutions could include surveillance cameras and regular police patrols at dumping hotspots.

"The council should run a campaign to raise awareness of what is happening. At the moment it's out of sight and out of mind," he said.

Despite multiple calls to Ballarat City Council and an email request on Friday, they could not be reached for comment.