Junkyard at Woolies Gungahlin Carpark [WHINGE]

Hahahahahahaha… tip fees are too high. They are NEGLIGIBLE.

Here’s a radical thought – how about we all try and produce a little less waste? Nah, only a communist would think that’s a good idea…

I’ve noticed people have recently gone to the extent of dumping their unwanted stuff outside the charity shops when they’re closed. Salvos in Mitchell recently had 400,000 Charnwood gnomes dumped on the footpath one weekend recently. It has become such a problem, and somebody stated this earlier in the thread, that it is becoming quite a cost to these charity organisations to run the shops. They have become inundated with too much stuff, rubbish and not.
I believe it is more a statement of the throwaway nature of society these days than a statement about tip fees. Tip fees are a fact of life in an urban environment. Get used to it.

@Ralph
No, I think you’re wrong…garbage dumped outside the tip may indicate fees are too high…outside a charity bin is laziness.

In reality tip fees are about spot on. There’s always going to be a minority of low-life bottom feeders who believe that the normal rules of society somehow don’t apply to them.

I find it reprehensible that the government requires people to pay outlandish fees for disposing of computer monitors, yet allows people to dump televisions. They are essentially the same technology – one just has a wood grained plastic finish, while the other is white.

It is clearly a problem – Just look at the number that have been dropped out of cars along the road at 80Kph, and those that litter the storm water drains.

The Government should be treating then the same as Halon or BCF extinguishers or gas bottles – a significant hazard that must be disposed of safely.

Peoples’ behaviour, clearly indicates that tip fees are too high.

Given I have a hard enough time giving things away as it is, I refuse to put stuff I am ‘giving’ rather than ‘throwing’ away anywhere but in a clothing bin, or nowadays I go into the the charity and give it to them – I’ve only ever received grateful smiles from the volunteers for doing so.

If you need to find a good charity bin that’s empty – Vinnies in Dickson is really good, they have a truck that seems to come daily.
Charity bins at the shops seem to be less maintained so I avoid them – it can take weeks before they’re emptied.

I wouldn’t bother donating just for that reason Danman. If the bins are already overflowing with stuff that the Salvo’s or whoever won’t touch, then what is the point? You are better off binning it or if it is half decent, sell it on eBay and make a bit of money.

After Mrs Danman and i’s wedding, we dropped off a few (6 or so) boxes of crockery kitchen wares and glasses/mugs to STVDP in mitchell. When I asked the lady where she wanted it, she huffed, and said in a short snappy tone “Just pit it all over there ok” as if I was putting her out. I mean it may have just been a bad day for her – but we had a heap of good stuff – we were only chucking it becauise we got brand new stuff from wedding presents. I know that somneone along tre track will apperciate our donations, but on the day we felt like we were putting them out by donating….

Also it was my understanding that dumping outside charity bins was a offence chargable with a fine.

In any case, I pass mitchell twice a day – I have no need for the charity bins. If I have something to donate, I take it straight to the source, Mitchell or Dickson – depending on what on the agenda. Those bins in woolies carpark make the whole place look ghettoesque.

Sounds nice, hingo, but unfortunately this illegal dumping even happens right outside the charity shops themselves. Me and several of the volunteers watched as people continued to pile up junk around the collection bin, even though the charity shop was open and accepting donations just METRES away from where they were illegally dumping!!

They then probably drive off thinking what a good dead they’ve just done – not thinking that it takes hours and hours for the volunteers to clean it all up – IF they even get to it before it rains!

I noticed this the other day. What an eyesore. They need to empty these bins more often or get rid of them. As someone said above, if people really want to give this stuff away then they will drive to Salvo’s or Vinnies.

That’s a tricky one. At one level you would imagine that tip fees are a recognition that free tipping was little more than a subsidy. Fees might also be a social engineering tool to encourage us to recycle more.

JTK and VYBV8 it’s a proven method. I know a bloke who managed to dispose of the AC sheet cladding from a whole single car carport in Lyneham – half a wheelie bin at a time!

I rarely go to the tip – mostly, I wait until dark, when I distribute my excess garbage and waste from my workshop across other bins in the street. It is a win-win situation, and I *don’t* have to pay tip fees!!!

I dno’t know what sh!ts me more – the maggots who dump rubbish at charities or the imbeciles who really believe that tip fees are some sort of excuse – I don’t doubt they’re a cause – it’s using them as an excuse that’s repugnant.

I’m with JR on the tip passes. Where my parents live in victoria when you pay your rates they send you two tip passes (along with passes for the public pool and info on council services etc) – I assume tennants have some other arrangements, but could be wrong.

I’m not sure why you’d bother taking a hatchback to the tip – if your garbage fits in s small car, break it down and toss it in your bins over a period of a few weeks. Last time I went to the tip I had a tonne or so of clay, rocks, weeds, broken bits of wood, and some boxes. Damn I’m cool.

Simple solution:

– remove all donation bins from car parks and make it so that you have to drop off donations at the charitable locations (when they are open)

– give each household 2 free passes to the tip for a standard load (no more than a car and standard box trailer load equivalent). This means that there should be no reason not to be able to take “stuff” to the tip, and the few households that don’t need the service can give, offer, barter or trade their passes with neighbours that do.

– get the government to install CCTV cameras outside the charitable shopfronts (where they are on the street) so that dumping is discouraged with stiff penalties.

If only Matthew lived in Gungahlin. 😛

Vic Bitterman – it’s $8 for a loaded hatchback. Not sure about sedans but I think it’s the same. I manage to fill my tiny little car (back seats down) with a mix of rubbish AND recyclable items. Total cost: $8.

If I have a couple of good recyclable items, I go straight to the recycling area. Total cost: FREE

If I have good quality clothes, I take them to the charity shops when they are open. You’ll find most of them open until about 2pm on a Saturday.

There is no excuse for dumping around already filled charity bins. There are other options.

Thanks for your comments everyone.

A lot of the time I reckon people think the charity could, in fact, use the stuff being dropped off. We drop off clothes whenever we do a cleanout (mostly Mrs VYBerlinaV8, who seems to have many many items of clothing), and often the local charity clothing bins are full. So it sits in the boot of the car for a couple of weeks.

If charities are going to have clothing bins, then at least empty them regularly. If they’re that worried about garbage, either mount some cameras to catch images of the perpetrators and/or their vehicle IDs, or get some volunteers to sit for a few hours each evening with cameras in their car. If there were a few publicised prosecutions, I reckon the problem would go away pretty quickly. But, of course, this is considered minor crime in Canberra, and as such there are no consequences for the criminals involved.

I drop my clothing donations off at teh Qbn HQ of the anglican charities (badged as The Bargain Hunter and an excellent resource!), but the bins out the back are always full. And from my observation, they are full of clothes, in bags, like mine are.

I think a lot of people want to pass on their stuff and reckon it’s still useable, and expect that charities will on=sell it, make some money and help re=cycle some stuff.

So apparently some people are putting bona fide rubbish at these places (clippings, household rubbish and dead animals), but a lot of the stuff is stuff I suspect the donators believe can be made-use-of.

There’s a business opportunity there for someone.

I don’t actually think the charity has to pay to drop off the rubbish as they are a non-profit organisation. I can’t confirm that though. But it still wastes their time an energy which isn’t fair.

This is a perfect example that there are plenty of people in the world who are true bastards.

I can live with people who do not donate to charity. That is a personal choice, and I respect personal choice.

People who choose to impose a cost onto a charity by dumping rubbish on them, are the lowest form of human life.

ACT govt is a big cause of this. $20 to drop off a load of rubbish at the tip? Fcuk that.

They took the bins away from out the front of the Vinnies shop at Mitchell but that hasn’t stopped people dumping junk their, particularly over the weekend when they are closed. Monday morning comes and the workers have to spend 20 mins shovelling all the crap out of the way before they can get to the front door. Aussie Junk is like a 2 min drive away and open 7 days a week but for some reason people would rather dump their junk at Vinnies.

I notice the other charity in Mitchell (Koomarri?) doesn’t have bins either and now they don’t even have retail sales to the public. Same with Belconnen branch. Probably for the same reason as it is costing them too much money to get rid of the junk so it wasn’t financially viable to have a shopfront anymore.

Take the bloody bins away then and there’s an end to the problem. Duhh! If they can drive to a bin, they can drive to a charity shop.

Seriously though – now that most shops have got rid of their charity bins, you never find any that aren’t already packed full. If they emptied them more often, less stuff would get wrecked from sitting in heaps next to the bins.

I know someone who drives around collecting stuff from the charity bins. Most of their day is spent taking rubbish to the tip. I find it somewhat disturbing that people can be so lazy as to just dump there rubbish wherever they like.

I’m surprised the government persists with allowing these remote collection bins. It is so easy (short drive) in Canberra to drive to the central donation facilities where staff can vett the contents before receiving them. Then the charities also don’t need to scout all the remote collection points with expensive truck services. Charity Computers in Charnwood does it quite successfully – the other charities should take note.

This happens all over town – it is a crying shame, and an exemplar of the “someone else’s problem” mentality that pervades modern society. Why can’t people take responsibility for their consumption and the garbage it produces?

Unfortunately, tip fees have only increased the likelihood that irresponsible members of society will dump their garbage wherever they please. These charity bins will soon be gone unless people behave more responsibly, and a valuable community service will be gone with them.

It makes me sick to the stomach.