It is no wonder people dump

[101RRS]

I went to my mums place up in Lake Macquarie last week and my brother turned up with a large load of rubbish to take to the tip.

In the past the tip fees were about $50 per tonne but when we checked the load slip we found the cost was now $260 per tonne mixed waste :o. Recyclables are charged at the same rate - green only is $90 a tonne. We had 700kg of rubbish so cost was going to be around $200. We went to the tip face and dumped only the "rubbish" ($100 worth) and reloaded the tin and steel back into the trailer.

While we were another car turned up from out of town with about 60kg of metal chain and when he realised how much the cost was turned around mumbling about dumping it on the side of the road.

We knew of a scrappy nearby and hoped we could dump the remainder there which we did and even got $20 for it.:) Even dumping the steel at a recycler you still have to pay a waste levy of around $20 a tonne. However there should have been no reason why recyclables could not have been dumped for free at the tip - and $260 for general rubbish is over the top.

While we do not have bench mark waste dumping processes here in Canberra we do have free green waste dumping (done via a contractor) and other recyclables are free. General waste is $70 a tonne when over 500kg.

Now I definitely do not support dumping in the bush etc but at $290 a tonne for general waste you would be tempted and may be the reason much of the bush around Lake Macquarie is full of rubbish.

Garry

[87County]

Unfortunately I think you've got a point there Garry - if the costs become prohibitive there are always some people will naturally seek other alternatives....

I've often been bemused at the exhorbitant costs associated with the disposal of really toxic stuff (asbestos and the like) - surely it's in the everybody's interest to have it disposed of correctly and that is more likely to happen if the reponsible authority (usually a council) doesn't try to make such a high profit out of everything it does.

If it was free for example, I think that a high percentage of the population would do the right thing.....

[VladTepes]

I was thinking exactly the same the other day when i found out about the costs. Have to just put a bit of steel in every weeks wheelie bin and they can deal with it when it ****s up their trucks ....

[Beckford]

The same levy also applies when you have to dump dirt at a licensed facility in the big city (Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong). Most dirt these days is classified as "General Solid Waste".

I noticed when in the outback (in towns and national parks) they just dig holes and you tip all your rubbish for free! :o

[Lotz-A-Landies]

It's because waste disposal has been sold off from local councils to private enterprise with a profit motive.

It's why you need to take advantage of council clean-ups which are paid for in your rates.

[Tombie]

Same problem here in Whyalla...

With so much scrub around you find tonnes of illegal dumping...

[isuzutoo-eh]

I can't remember the exact figure but disposing for recycling of electronics waste (TVs etc) costs over $3000 per tonne for the tip operator, and they don't operate as a charity so you can expect to pay for your expensive throwaway lifestyle.
Asbestos requires a dedicated dump truck, dedicated loading ramp, dedicated hole in the ground and higher level training and safety crap to deal with, the truck can't be used for general services so its sitting most of the time doing nothing, the truck cost a couple of hundred grand and depreciates while doing nothing, hence costing the tip operator money.

Waste is expensive!

[p38arover]

I took some steel to the scrappie today. They paid 13.5 cents/kg ($135/tonne).

Other rates they paid today:

Domestic Aluminium 80c/kg
Lead $1.00/kg
Batteries 0.40c/kg
Low grade electric motors 40c/kg (that was for an old fluoro ballast)

[SuperMono]

Unfortunately I think you've got a point there Garry - if the costs become prohibitive there are always some people will naturally seek other alternatives....

I think you can remove a few words, like 'become prohibitive'.
The waste charges around home are nothing like those mentioned and yet there is still often the classic trailer load of rubbish and an old couch chucked out on the side of the road or down any quiet path.

Lazy, selfish people with no sense of community abound.

[101RRS]

It's why you need to take advantage of council clean-ups which are paid for in your rates.

Apparently Lake Macquarie City Council is intending to do away with these pick ups as they are not paying their way as the scrappies come around the few days before the pick up and take all the valuable stuff leaving the worthless rubbish for the council.

By way of example my Mum's council pickup up is today - I put her old hot water system out late last week before I left and it was there 20 minutes before it went.

Garry

[101RRS]

I can't remember the exact figure but disposing for recycling of electronics waste (TVs etc) costs over $3000 per tonne for the tip operator, and they don't operate as a charity so you can expect to pay for your expensive throwaway lifestyle.


Canberra used to charge for these but has recently introduced a free recycling center at the tip. 80% of a typical TV/computer etc can be recycled and already less TVs are being put in the rubbish bin and are being sent to the recycling center. The Government tip is actually making money on these.

Garry

[Lotz-A-Landies]

<snip>
Asbestos requires a dedicated dump truck, dedicated loading ramp, dedicated hole in the ground and higher level training and .....Not necessarily true. Asbestos is now being dumped into Wittenoom, the same place it was mined and as such the safety concerns are minimised because the stuff is native to the area.

[DiscoWeb]

Well I had a very different experience, albeit similar circumstances.

Over the past month my brother and I have had a couple of weekends helping our Mum move from Bowral to Mittagong in the NSW southern highlands which included a few runs to the tip now called the "Wingecarribee Resource Recovery Centre".

Lady at the front gate was super helpful, we were able to dump old fridge, anything metal, green waste and paper for recycling at no charge and then come back around and be weighed again for general waste.

Even the people working the tip who wanted to salvage personally a couple of old sleepers for fire wood and some odds and sods meant it reduced the tipping fees.

It is the most efficiently run, friendly joint and whilst we paid probably $150 over a few trips it was $hundreds less than it could have been if we had to pay for the lot.

Generally I am not a big fan of local government and councils but this was an exception !!

George

[JDNSW]

I think a lot of people have lost sight of the fact that rubbish collection was introduced to stop people from dumping it along the road or in the bush. And if it gets too expensive, that is exactly what will happen. And I suspect in may cases it is already happening.

It OK to go off at "Lazy, selfish people with no sense of community", but it is not that simple - for most people their sense of community has a maximum price, and if you go over that, and it evaporates.

John

[Bigbjorn]

I think a lot of people have lost sight of the fact that rubbish collection was introduced to stop people from dumping it along the road or in the bush. And if it gets too expensive, that is exactly what will happen. And I suspect in may cases it is already happening.

It OK to go off at "Lazy, selfish people with no sense of community", but it is not that simple - for most people their sense of community has a maximum price, and if you go over that, and it evaporates.

John

Lots of people consider they have already paid exorbitant rates to their council and rubbish removal is a council duty already paid for. The roadside collection only happens every two years in Brisbane and they have a list of stuff they will not take away, car parts, batteries, tyres, asbestos sheeting, agricultural chemicals, paint and so on.

When I was a boy in Brisbane only one small bin was picked up by the council's contractors once a week. There was no tip in the inner suburbs and many people then did not have a vehicle. One solution was to take your rubbish down to the river and throw it in. One often saw people with barrows, billy carts, old prams etc. heading down Brunswick St past our place loaded with rubbish to dump in the river. Vacant blocks and bushland received their share also.

Now we have two big wheelie bins originally intended to stop illegal dumping by providing adequate capacity for a household to get rid of their rubbish and recyclables and there is a long list of stuff we are not supposed to put in them, nor can we put them out for the biennial roadside collection. No wonder bushland has become popular again.

[Ralph1Malph]

Interestingly, we live in Ferny Hills and along with a few other burbs are subject to community 'discussion' as to whether we should be part of BCC or Moreton Bay Regional Council. Tip fees were high on my agenda when I submitted public feedback as the Bunya Tip (MBRC) is free for residents, but BCC use vouchers and a fee system if no vouchers. I am renovating and landscaping so would pref MBRC. I am told the rates are lower in BCC though, so maybe works out in the end.
Problem is big stuff. White goods, timber etc are hard to shove in your wheelie bin although I did cut a washing machine up many years ago in Sydney and dispose of it over a few weeks.

Ralph

[inside]

Interestingly, we live in Ferny Hills and along with a few other burbs are subject to community 'discussion' as to whether we should be part of BCC or Moreton Bay Regional Council. Tip fees were high on my agenda when I submitted public feedback as the Bunya Tip (MBRC) is free for residents, but BCC use vouchers and a fee system if no vouchers. I am renovating and landscaping so would pref MBRC. I am told the rates are lower in BCC though, so maybe works out in the end.
Everton Hills here and going through the same thought process. One leaflet dropped in my letter box says we pay $600 on average a year for that "free" tip compared to BCC. I make sure I try and get value out of it.

[Pinelli]

It's all free here in the Whitsundays, bar things like tyres and batteries, at a couple of bucks each.


We do have to pay for mulch made from the green waste - the princely sum of $10 a cubic metre, but really they just want to get rid of the stuff. Last time I took the ute and a trailer down, they basically covered the back of the ute, the trailer and inbetween the two up above the height of the roof of the ute. Must have been about 3 cubic metres all up. And with the huge pile of mulch sitting head height on between the ute and trailer, I had to engage low range 4WD just to get out.

[loanrangie]

I work in Tullamarine near the airport and on a regular basis i see piles of tyres dumped on the side of the road and i'm sure its the same offender each time, probably due to the cost of disposal as mentioned here in this thread - it would cost a lot more to collect from the side of the road than it does at the recycling station.

[Sprint]

since the local tips stopped accepting tyres and some have started charging, the amount of rubbish (esp old tyres) getting dumped is going up :-(

[wrinklearthur]

The guys were clearing excessive vegetation under the power lines , so the Wife asked if she could get a truck load of the chips for mulch.
Teeing it up with the boss, after asking what the cost would be and was told it was free.

The guys dumping the stuff asked for a carton of grog !

Free Grog?

[Homestar]

Sounds like we've got it good in Sunbury. All recyclables are free to dump if you seperate them in to the right piles. I then get 2 free trailer loads per year, plus a roadside pick up included in my rates. Added to this is that I also get next doors rates notice so there's 4 all up - never had to pay anything to dump here - and subsequently - roadside dumping is not as rampant - although there is a bit here and there, but only occasionally.

[Davehoos]

http://www.singleton.nsw.gov.au/SiteFiles/singleton2009nswgovau/Waste%20Depot%20-%20Fees%20and%20Charges%20-%202012%20%20%202013%20-%20Handout.pdf

Fees & Charges (http://www.berriganshire.nsw.gov.au/Council/FeesCharges.aspx)

Maitland City Council - Waste (http://www.maitland.nsw.gov.au/ResidentsCommunity/Waste)

and my local
http://www.greatlakes.nsw.gov.au/files/16d8b406-6139-48da-a2e9-9f10011afe1f/Stroud_Landfill_Recycling_Centre_Fees.pdf

road side are large numbers of matress--recently parked on hyway an abandoned ute-after a few days it was full of matresses.2 weeks later the ute was loaded and the matress stayed.

illegal dumping at the tips are followed up.I regularly have to repair gates and fences.most of these have cameras.

[ScottW]

On the Gold Coast, it's free to dump household waste at the local collection station. I dumped my entire kitchen, including a few internal walls and all the carpet from my house while we were doing renos without any issues. Same thing when I trimmed all the trees and removed a few that were close to the house. The only thing they won't take is asbestos and tyres.

Yet still people dump stuff in the bush, by the road and anywhere else they feel like. Even if you remove the costs, it always comes back to the point that some people are just grubs and only care for themselves.

[Tombie]

Sounds like we've got it good in Sunbury. All recyclables are free to dump if you seperate them in to the right piles. I then get 2 free trailer loads per year, plus a roadside pick up included in my rates. Added to this is that I also get next doors rates notice so there's 4 all up - never had to pay anything to dump here - and subsequently - roadside dumping is not as rampant - although there is a bit here and there, but only occasionally.

Here in Whyalla...

Green waste is free to dump
Batteries are free to dump
Oil is free to dump

Everything else is bloody expensive... :(

And then I pay $1600.00 p.a in Council rates and don't even get as hard rubbish collection included :mad:

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Thinking back to life as a young kid in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney I remember going to the council tip on ANZAC Parade right near the ANZAC Rifle Range and also on Bunnerong Road oposite the Total Oil refinery.

Both places are now in the news, as the local member Peter Garrett has recently had a loss in court when he attempted turning the rifle range an associated land into a national park. Nothing much has been said about the rubbish tip and the need to remediate the land under the sports grounds. The other area on Bunnerong Road developers want to turn into housing.

I'm just waiting for an opportune time, like the developers get their hands on the place, to write to the local paper and remind them of the contaminated ground.

On other councils, the Shoalhaven City Council has a tip and a recycling/re-use centre at the gate which seems to work well. This is O.K when the population is small and the area is large but in the large urban areas it's a different ball game.

[Bigbjorn]

I'm just waiting for an opportune time, like the developers get their hands on the place, to write to the local paper and remind them of the contaminated ground.

.

A couple of years ago, a mate sold his wrecking yard on 5 acres in what is now desirable inner city real estate. His family owned the property since the 1890's when it was considerably larger and considered out in the boondocks. It had been a wrecking yard over 50 years. The new owners are developers and want to build townhouses on the site. Council and the Environment Dept. want it dug out to depth of one metre and the spoil is classed as toxic waste. Full of oils, glass, metals, batteries, etc. They levelled the humps and hollows with old parts and broken up armour glass gravel. Who knows what surprises lay in wait for earthmovers and builders.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

...The new owners are developers and want to build townhouses on the site. Council and the Environment Dept. want it dug out to depth of one metre and the spoil is classed as toxic waste. Full of oils, glass, metals, batteries, etc. They levelled the humps and hollows with old parts and broken up armour glass gravel. Who knows what surprises lay in wait for earthmovers and builders.IN NSW the top metre of soil would have to be transported to a toxic waste dump, and concrete laid over the entire site, then painted green to indicate toxic waste below and then a metre of new soil placed on top. That is called land remediation and nothing is done about the toxic leachate seeping into the groundwater.