21 July 2010

CCTV bandaid for failed waste policies

| johnboy
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Chief Minister Stanhope is unwittingly identifying another abject policy failure. This time announcing “Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at 24-hour recycling centres in an effort to curb illegal dumping and the associated clean-up costs”.

The ACT Government manages six drop-off recycling centres which collectively accept over 3700 tonnes of recyclables each year.

However some Canberrans are using the centres illegally to dump items such as cooking oil, clothing, furniture, computers, TVs and whitegoods.

Mr Stanhope said the cameras would help to reduce the incidence of dumping and identify offenders.

“Cameras are being installed at known hot spots at recycling centres to discourage illegal dumping,” Mr Stanhope said. “The cameras will help to deter people from illegal dumping and identify offenders so fines can be issued.

Now if we had waste disposal policies to benefit the community and not to serve whatever false economy environmentalism that drifted through the Chiefly mind in years gone by people wouldn’t be driven to dumping.

But where would the fun be in that?

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#28

From the ACT Gov website.

‘The burning of garden or other waste in urban areas is banned. This includes burning waste in a backyard incinerator. On the spot fines can be imposed for breaches of this Act.’

It’s hard to bury packing cases.

Ooohhh, nice thread resurrection.

cranky said :

Wood is NOT recyclable. And you are not allowed to burn it.

Sure you can. Burning off in a suburban backyard might not be legal, but a cook or heating fire is perfectly legal (unless there is a fire ban).

At the end of last winter I burnt a HUGE pile of material from my yard – for heating or cooking purposes.

dvaey said :

If you have enough e-recycling to need more than a couple of drop-offs per year, youre buying and disposing of too much electronics. For monitors, try dropping them at charity bins or stores. Or as others have suggested, leave it on your nature-strip with a ‘Free’ or ‘$5’ sign on it and itll disappear in under an hour.

And if you are a computer trader, how much is ‘too much’? Also the word is out that CRTs cost money to dump, so people often won’t accept them for free, even good big ones working in fine condition.

cranky said :

Wood is NOT recyclable. And you are not allowed to burn it.

Of course it is, it rots, either bury it or make something with it with a saw and a hammer and nails.

Of course you are, if it’s not arsenic treated. Why do you think you aren’t?

You can stick a sign on it, ‘free firewood’ and watch it vanish, or you can make a fire and cook damper. No problem.

smee said :

dvaey said :

Computers can goto charity computers or e-recycling days

E-Recycling days are rare, and Charity Computers only take working computers, and will charge a fee if its not working. The tip charges $22.50 per monitor working or not.

If you have enough e-recycling to need more than a couple of drop-offs per year, youre buying and disposing of too much electronics. For monitors, try dropping them at charity bins or stores. Or as others have suggested, leave it on your nature-strip with a ‘Free’ or ‘$5’ sign on it and itll disappear in under an hour.

cranky said :

Wood is NOT recyclable. And you are not allowed to burn it.

As a frequent camper, who isnt allowed to collect wood from the national park while camping, let me tell you how good scrap timber is for campfires. Especially if youve got a few fence pailings or some nice hardwood. Im sure if youve got decent amounts of timber, you could contact places such as tadact who build aids for the disabled and offer them some materials.

We rarely fill our rubbish bins, yet often find our recycling bins are full only a few days after being collected, often with more left in the kitchen recycling bin that simply wont fit. This is after weve done a weekly trip to the recycling depot with cardboard and cans/bottles too. Its not hard to recycle a lot of what you use, you just have to think outside the box sometimes.

Wood is NOT recyclable. And you are not allowed to burn it.

Every splinter of it a dollar in Sonics pocket.

dvaey said :

Computers can goto charity computers or e-recycling days

E-Recycling days are rare, and Charity Computers only take working computers, and will charge a fee if its not working. The tip charges $22.50 per monitor working or not.

We already pay fees to the ACT government twice over for this stuff, once through GST when purchased and once through our rates which is supposed to include waste disposal. Now they are triple dipping knowing there is heaps of this stuff out there and we have no viable alternatives to dispose of it.

Why is it that company that does the E-Recycling days can make a profit, including hiring and moving large shipping containers, without charging us for disposal and the ACT government has to bill us for it?

More money grabbing ripoffs from dysfunctional and incompetent politicians (that includes all parties).

54-11 said :

JC, you’re right, there are facilities. Note that I said above “proper” – what is available is expensive, inconvenient and does not suit a lot of people. You just need to read the comments above to see that.

And it’s not just that poeple don’t want to pay the cost, it’s much more than that.

Im not sure what costs are involved, but all of the options I mentioned, are free. (Other than the phone call to salvos/ezy-scrap). Sure, there might be some items which arent properly recyclable, but honestly from our household we have very little which actually goes to landfill, as almost everything can be re-used or re-claimed somehow.

sepi said :

this is just going to result in more piles of old computer monitors littering the reserves around town.

Why don’t they spend the money the cameras will cost on hiring a few skips to leave at the recycling depot.

Firstly, why are people dumping monitors at the recycling centre? The problem with leaving free skips out, is that I imagine commercial users would start using them. Builders pulling down a kitchen for example, would much rather throw everything in a skip, rather than sort it out into scrap metal, wood and other re-usable building materials.

sepi said :

AND – my big whinge – why is there not a Trashpak service in Canberra that collects green garden waste only, and disposes of it to the Free drop off points. Instead trash pack contents go straight to landfill at the tip, even tho surely most of it is garden waste.

Are you sure about this? Does greenwaste not go to Corkhill Bros at the tip and get turned into mulch and compost? Also, how is it good for the environment (and the budget), to have a vehicle driving around picking up garden waste to take it to the ‘Free’ drop-off points? Why not make individuals do it, on those rare occasions that they have to do it. Unless you live on a rural property, youre not going to have enough green-waste on a regular basis, to use a disposal system such as this.

georgesgenitals10:53 am 22 Jul 10

It’s pretty sad that the ACT govt spends time and resourcing grandstanding on bullshit issues that a lot of people don’t care about when basic services aren’t sorted.

this is just going to result in more piles of old computer monitors littering the reserves around town.

Why don’t they spend the money the cameras will cost on hiring a few skips to leave at the recycling depot.

AND – my big whinge – why is there not a Trashpak service in Canberra that collects green garden waste only, and disposes of it to the Free drop off points. Instead trash pack contents go straight to landfill at the tip, even tho surely most of it is garden waste.

Choice mag even had a go at the lack of waste services in teh ACT in teh last issue. they are comparing the sustainability of 3 households, and the Canberra family is stymied by lack of waste facilities compared to the other two states that are featured.

JC, you’re right, there are facilities. Note that I said above “proper” – what is available is expensive, inconvenient and does not suit a lot of people. You just need to read the comments above to see that.

And it’s not just that poeple don’t want to pay the cost, it’s much more than that.

What’s needed is a proper waste management strategy for material other than the current rubbish/recycling service.

Maybe we should find out whether any of those folks that have appeared in other posts that have loads of cars and stuff around their houses would like to have a collection of computer monitors or CRT TVs. I’m sure google earth can help find willing collection sites.

TheVirulentOne6:35 pm 21 Jul 10

Actually, the QBN bi-annual collection depends on whether you live in units/townhouses, or houses. If the former, there are designated days, but QBN council doesn’t advertise them, they letter-drop the week before to notify residents. Probably to deter people from the ACT taking advantage of this golden opportunity.

When I moved to the ACT from Sydney the lack of ‘clean-up’ days, plus charging for recycling at the tip utterly amazed me, this was simply part of the standard, excessive, rates package in Sydney. Thankfully QBN has some sense (let’s not mention the Special Rates Variation this year).

john87_no1 said :

Maybe people wouldn’t dump things if the Tip didn’t charge such ludicrous amounts to drop rubbish off.

I went to drop off rubbish the other day to Mugga Lane and with all my computers and TV’s in the trailer the disposal charge would have been $300.

I told them to stick it…. and buried it myself.

I am so over Stanhope and his chump ideas.

Nice one, environmental vandalism at its worst, well, perhaps not its worst. I assume you also pour oil down the sink.

I understood that ACT would have hard rubbish collection by now, I mean it was in the last ALP election platform. So in lieu of providing this service, as promised, the CM now proposes to punish people for disposing of hard rubbish in umm rubbish collection points ?

georgesgenitals3:27 pm 21 Jul 10

p1 said :

georgesgenitals said :

And this is exactly what happens just over the border in fair Queanbeyan. Twice per year the local council come, free of charge, and remove whatever you leave on your front lawn, provided it it boxed or tied up sensibly.

Anyone know what date this happens? I’ll just leave all my unwanted stuff in a neat pile out the front of a house in Queanbeyan.

You need to ring and book your pickup. You get two per year, and they typically want a couple of weeks notice.

perhaps what is needed is a government surcharge (ie Tax) on electronics so that you pay for the disposal at the time you buy it?

Very few manufacturers have their own recycling schemes (in Australia I think only Apple has a “bring it back to us for free” program me in place), so it’s up to the Gummint to get us to pay upfront so we don’t have stupid people burying their ewaste illegally and thus endangering everyone else’s health and wellbeing.

It might also be worth having n advertising campaign to tell people about the facilities for cooking oil, green waste, fridges, computers, batteries, etc. Not to mention labelling stuff at the tip better so the cheapskate idiots can figure out where to dump the shiny white thing that keeps food cold.

54-11 said :

JB is dead right (I can’t beleive I keep saying/thinking that!) – if only we had proper recycling facilities for green and e-waste, then a lot of this dumping would be unnecessary.

Actually we do have green facilities for both. With e-waste though the user pays. In fact we have facilities to deal with every type of waste, but people don’t want to pay.

Complete waste of time. Who’s going to monitor them and is it worth the possible $200 fine you might get if you get caught.

georgesgenitals said :

And this is exactly what happens just over the border in fair Queanbeyan. Twice per year the local council come, free of charge, and remove whatever you leave on your front lawn, provided it it boxed or tied up sensibly.

Anyone know what date this happens? I’ll just leave all my unwanted stuff in a neat pile out the front of a house in Queanbeyan.

OP: However some Canberrans are using the centres illegally to dump items such as cooking oil, clothing, furniture, computers, TVs and whitegoods.

Seriously, why dump this stuff? Cooking oil can goto the tip (although it can be an effort finding the small barrel it goes into if youve never dumped oil before). Clothing and furniture can be taken by charities or revolve. Computers can goto charity computers or e-recycling days, and white goods can be picked up from your house for free as scrap metal. Seriously, why dump it when theres so many options to get rid of it?

Also, as a regular visitor to the recycling centres, Ive been seeing signs around the place advertising 24hr CCTV surveillance for a number of years. You mean to tell me these signs have been for appearance only, and now that people have realised the signs are fake, the government realises it has to put its money where its mouth is, and actually HAVE cameras, not just talk about them.

georgesgenitals1:24 pm 21 Jul 10

justin heywood said :

Some people believe that ‘The Government’ should come around and collect any unwanted stuff at their house.

And this is exactly what happens just over the border in fair Queanbeyan. Twice per year the local council come, free of charge, and remove whatever you leave on your front lawn, provided it it boxed or tied up sensibly.

Just another reason why Queanbo rules.

Mitchell quoted me $15 a computer case and upwards of $25 a monitor.

I’ve been tempted to leave them out the front before the tip opens, but I’ll wait for another free e-waste recycling day.

justin heywood12:43 pm 21 Jul 10

john87_no1 said :

Maybe people wouldn’t dump things if the Tip didn’t charge such ludicrous amounts to drop rubbish off.

I went to drop off rubbish the other day to Mugga Lane and with all my computers and TV’s in the trailer the disposal charge would have been $300.

It’s not a strong argument to say that it’s OK to dump things if you don’t like the present arrangements. Some people believe that ‘The Government’ should come around and collect any unwanted stuff at their house. Should these people be allowed to dump their old stuff until the time comes when they are happy with the arrangements?

I agree that the the charges at the tip are too high. But I don’t agree that makes it OK to dump stuff all around the countryside. If you can afford to buy new stuff, you can afford to dispose of your old stuff.

colourful sydney racing identity12:20 pm 21 Jul 10

I would like to see cctv cameras put in place around charity donation bins for two reasons

1) catch the b@st@rds who dump all their rubbish around the donation points costing the charities a fortune in removal expenses

2) catch the second hand stores that scour the bins for merchandise to sell at premium prices

Maybe people wouldn’t dump things if the Tip didn’t charge such ludicrous amounts to drop rubbish off.

I went to drop off rubbish the other day to Mugga Lane and with all my computers and TV’s in the trailer the disposal charge would have been $300.

I told them to stick it…. and buried it myself.

I am so over Stanhope and his chump ideas.

JB is dead right (I can’t beleive I keep saying/thinking that!) – if only we had proper recycling facilities for green and e-waste, then a lot of this dumping would be unnecessary.

Stanhopeless should be addressing the cause of the problem, not enforcement of the symptoms. The same argument goes for speed cameras and point-to-point. They are only addressing the symptom.

p1 said :

But will it deter the 13 year old boys from going through the paper recycling looking for p0rn?

Although I guess they don’t have to do that any more, what with the interbweb and all the boobs in Underbelly.

I think most guys in Belco will remember the paper dump.

justin heywood10:23 am 21 Jul 10

I agree with His Chiefliness on this one. The recycling centres work well but their efficiency is marred by a minority who abuse them -throwing out old TVs, computers, mattresses etc.

These people have taken the time to load their unwanted items into their car but couldn’t be arsed driving the extra distance to the tip and disposing of them properly. They throw them out at the recycling centre because nobody sees them. The CCTV cameras should stop that.

If we can afford to buy all these shiny new things surely we can afford to dispose of our old gear properly.

So…these are people have gone to the effort to dump these things in what seems like a vaguely sensible place (even if they do so illegally). What is the more likely effect of cameras:

1) They realise the error of their ways and stop dumping entirely, or
2) They simply take their dumping to a less sensible-seeming place that has no cameras?

Pretty sure I know the answer.

But will it deter the 13 year old boys from going through the paper recycling looking for p0rn?

Although I guess they don’t have to do that any more, what with the interbweb and all the boobs in Underbelly.

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