27 July 2009

Council Cleanups - Does Canberra have them?

| bellaa
Join the conversation
20

Hi everyone – quick question. Are there any council cleanups in Canberra? I can only find info on garbage and recycling bin collections….

We have some stuff we would like to get rid of but it would take three years of garbage collections trying to fit it, bit by bit, in our miniscule bin!

Plus, we always found when we put stuff out for council cleanups in Sydney, it would be snapped up long before the trucks came around.

I kind of like the idea that someone out there finds our junk useful, rather than just sending it to landfill.

Join the conversation

20
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Second Hand Sunday was a bit weird though – gubmint insisted that items were displayed on residents’ own property, not the nature strip, so you had to have people trampling around your front garden or down the side of the house on the driveway.

RoyT said :

It’s shocking to know that there is no clean up service in ACT. Coming from Sydney, I’m utterly disappointed with this fact. It contradicts with the approach of keeping ACT clean and tidy. There should be some sorts of clean up services, regardless in whatever form or frequency it might be.

I agree .It would save getting the ranger out for abandoned mattresses,chairs , monitors and the like.

We don’t even have a council in the ACT. If we did it would soon make the ACT Government redundant.
Perhaps the cleanups could be outsouced to Qheanbeyan Council and if they do a good job the bus service across the border could be tried out instead of ACTION.

Someone upthread (in 2009) mentioned freecycle.org, which is going strong in Canberra now. I’ve got rid of a few things recently, and by the looks of the daily digest of want/offer ads, not much hangs around for long.

Remember though that some things are just rubbish, and should be taken to the tip.

Seriously, is December zombie thread month or what!?

Queanbo gets two council clean ups a year, and you get to book in the date of when they will clean up your stuff. Just another reason why Canberra can never more than the gateway to Queanbeyan.

shadow boxer1:11 pm 02 Dec 11

It wont be long now and there wont be a street in Canberra without a merry band of dumped analougue tv’s on the nature strips.

RoyT said :

It’s shocking to know that there is no clean up service in ACT. Coming from Sydney, I’m utterly disappointed with this fact. It contradicts with the approach of keeping ACT clean and tidy. There should be some sorts of clean up services, regardless in whatever form or frequency it might be.

What are you talking about?

Just do as Canberrans do and leave all of your rubbish outside a charity bin*

*please do not actually leave your rubbish outside a charity bin

It’s shocking to know that there is no clean up service in ACT. Coming from Sydney, I’m utterly disappointed with this fact. It contradicts with the approach of keeping ACT clean and tidy. There should be some sorts of clean up services, regardless in whatever form or frequency it might be.

Gungahlin Al11:02 am 28 Jul 09

caf said :

Hmm? They organised a few “Second Hand Sundays” earlier in the year. The TAMS site is here, and says that It is likely that there will be a Second-hand Sunday in spring 2009 and autumn 2010. Advertising in local newspapers will begin at least three weeks before the event.

They did and it was.

Plus it was on RA: http://the-riotact.com/?p=10724

Felix the Cat9:27 pm 27 Jul 09

Ezy Scrap has a free pickup of scrap metal and will even give you a nominal sum for old car wrecks – http://www.ezyscrap.com.au/

I listed my stuff on freecycle first, and got no responses. The “Free Stuff” bit of All Classifieds worked better… I also sold a mattress on there.

I would have thought that the council clean up would be called the local election?

Second Hand Sunday is a poor-man’s council cleanup, with the main limitations that the goods are only supposed to be on the nature strip on one day, it’s not always well advertised (to junk offloaders OR collectors) and that if stuff is not collected on that day there is no pickup of whatever’s left.

When I was growing up in Sydney, we always used to joke that council would book the collection contractors for at least a couple of weeks after the nominated cleanup day, to give everyone time to whittle down the amount of stuff left to collect.

Here I find Freecycle is much better, or if you think it might be sellable either Allclassifieds or the free classifieds for items under $100 in Tuesday’s Canberra Times. There is also about a column of “wanted” items in the Tuesday CT classies, which is always worth perusing in case you can offload something you haven’t yet thought of parting with (IMO).

I think it is a shame too, and too many people’s houses and yards end up full of crap because they a)can’t afford to take them it the dump, b) don’t have a trailer, c) can’t be bothered etc.

It would do a lot for the “cleanliness” of canberra if there was a council cleanup once a quarter or so.

Can we start a petition?

It’s a shame they don’t have council cleanups in Canberra. Getting rid of furniture is surprisingly difficult, especially now new furniture starts at very low prices compared with 10 years ago.

I had some stuff in good condition to get rid of, and ended up giving it away on All Classifieds but it wasn’t easy!

I notice in Qbn during the lead-up to their council cleanup days, all kinds of intriguing stuff appears on the naturestrip and people quickly help themselves, which is a really efficient system. No need to take out ads etc, just whack it out on the front lawn.

ImaybeabitchBUTnotYOURbitch10:24 am 27 Jul 09

I wondered the same thing when I moved to Canberra a few years ago. It really bothers me that there isn’t an occasional council cleanup service for junk and green waste, particularly with the tiny wheelie bins.

I recommend Freecycle http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclecanberra/ and the freebies section on allclassifieds http://www.allclassifieds.com.au/ac/ac0001?catid=136 to pass on unwanted but still useable things. It’s worth a go – you might be surprised at how fast your gear gets snapped up! Even the things you think have no value may turn out to be just what someone else needs.

For unuseable rubbish that you can’t squeeze into that teeny weeny bin, try hiring a trashpak or mini skip. I’ve even heard of neighbours arranging a joint clean-up weekend and sharing a skip.

Hope this helps. Good luck getting rid of your stuff!

Hmm? They organised a few “Second Hand Sundays” earlier in the year. The TAMS site is here, and says that It is likely that there will be a Second-hand Sunday in spring 2009 and autumn 2010. Advertising in local newspapers will begin at least three weeks before the event.

Gungahlin Al10:13 am 27 Jul 09

They are called Second Hand Sunday, and there were several of them through autumn. No doubt there’ll be more in spring.

We organised a street garage sale that had 6 houses involved, and a lot of people turning up (plus we got to know some neighbours). What didn’t sell that day, we put out on the footpath the next morning for second hand Sunday, and it was all gone by the end of the day, and a nice spacious garage resulting.

But people are pretty trained to the idea now and you can just put things out at the footpath any time with a “Help yourself” sign and they will go quickly. We have used this to dispose of a lounge and dining suite recently. I figured there was more wood glue than wood holding the old dining suite together, and the cat had done horrible things to the lounge over the years, but someone else figured it was worth grabbing.

ChrisinTurner9:42 am 27 Jul 09

Not really. Many political promises made but if you check their website there is still no mention. http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/Recycling_and_Waste/Residential_Waste_and_Recycling_Collection Call CanberraConnect and complain.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.