15 December 2011

Random garbage making its way into garden

| Roxypork
Join the conversation
17

Next to the house which my wife and I own and live in is a flat area where others in the street place their bins for weekly collection. Nothing wrong with that, can live with the late night noise as people put their bins out at midnight – live and let live.

What we can’t stand any more is the overflows out of the bins being left in the garden – this week it is a nappy and a half smashed plate, which we will now have to go and pick up.

Any suggestions as to what we can do/who we can complain to?

Thanks

Join the conversation

17
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

that Elvis song comes to mind…………we had a quarrell..

HenryBG said :

I’d say this is in the exact same vein as complaints from those who don’t like their neighbours listening to music, and those who don’t like their neighbours’ gardens full of scrap metal.

The bottom line is, if you can’t cope with the inevitable effects of living in a town, the answer is to move out somewhere in the bush where there are no neighbours.

That doesn’t work mate. I lived for many years in rural areas outside Canberra, and the problems are similar but different. At various times I had my letterbox smashed, vandalised fences resulting in lost animals, uncontrolled dogs killing my chooks and bullets flying around my house as a result of drunk knobs with guns.

The latter crew were lucky not to receive return fire.

user_unknown3:51 pm 15 Dec 11

Keijidosha said :

I have a similar problem with people jettisoning rubbish from their cars onto my lawn as they turn into the street. My solution was to suck it up and clean the mess every few days.

Sometimes solving the problem takes more effort than dealing with the outcome.

Agreed. I live on the last house in a place, next to a footpath. Not only do we get people throw things in our garden, but stuff goes flying on bin day from people who don’t wrap their garbage. No use complaining, I just suck it up & clean it up. One exception was our lovely neighbor (honest she is – no sarcasm) had her deadbeat grandson & his even more deadbeat girlfriend who used to smoke out the back of their place & flick used cigarette butts over the fence. Got to a stage where we collected about 50 in one hit so we tossed them back over! They never did it again & I suspect our neighbor had a word to them coz she was super nice afterwards & knew neither me nor my partner smoked!

colourful sydney racing identity2:54 pm 15 Dec 11

HenryBG said :

GardeningGirl said :

HenryBG said :

GardeningGirl said :

Since when is treating everything and everyone around you with a lack of consideration and respect an inevitable part of urban life?

The fact is, when you live as part of a larger human population, a good proportion of the humans around you neither hold nor respect your values. The bigger the city, the more those alien values are shoved down your throat.
When you live in the city, you have three choices:
– become a whinger
– learn tolerance
– move to the country.

So the litterers should tolerate the OP’s desire for a clean garden. Simple.

That’s authoritarianism.
A very common complaint among Canberrans – obsessed with co-ercing people into/outof certain behaviours.
My point is about values: some people think nothing of throwing rubbish everywhere. You don’t really get to tell people how to behave, they just follow whatever rubbish values their rubbish parents instilled them with.
Meanwhile, the litterers have to tolerate the car-tyre swans in your front yard and those awful checked-shirts you like to wear.

So when did you leave your last bridge and decide to set up your home here?

GardeningGirl said :

HenryBG said :

GardeningGirl said :

Since when is treating everything and everyone around you with a lack of consideration and respect an inevitable part of urban life?

The fact is, when you live as part of a larger human population, a good proportion of the humans around you neither hold nor respect your values. The bigger the city, the more those alien values are shoved down your throat.
When you live in the city, you have three choices:
– become a whinger
– learn tolerance
– move to the country.

So the litterers should tolerate the OP’s desire for a clean garden. Simple.

That’s authoritarianism.
A very common complaint among Canberrans – obsessed with co-ercing people into/outof certain behaviours.
My point is about values: some people think nothing of throwing rubbish everywhere. You don’t really get to tell people how to behave, they just follow whatever rubbish values their rubbish parents instilled them with.
Meanwhile, the litterers have to tolerate the car-tyre swans in your front yard and those awful checked-shirts you like to wear.

GardeningGirl1:02 pm 15 Dec 11

HenryBG said :

GardeningGirl said :

Since when is treating everything and everyone around you with a lack of consideration and respect an inevitable part of urban life?

The fact is, when you live as part of a larger human population, a good proportion of the humans around you neither hold nor respect your values. The bigger the city, the more those alien values are shoved down your throat.
When you live in the city, you have three choices:
– become a whinger
– learn tolerance
– move to the country.

So the litterers should tolerate the OP’s desire for a clean garden. Simple.

GardeningGirl said :

Since when is treating everything and everyone around you with a lack of consideration and respect an inevitable part of urban life?

The fact is, when you live as part of a larger human population, a good proportion of the humans around you neither hold nor respect your values. The bigger the city, the more those alien values are shoved down your throat.
When you live in the city, you have three choices:
– become a whinger
– learn tolerance
– move to the country.

GardeningGirl12:40 pm 15 Dec 11

HenryBG said :

The bottom line is, if you can’t cope with the inevitable effects of living in a town, the answer is to move out somewhere in the bush where there are no neighbours.

Since when is treating everything and everyone around you with a lack of consideration and respect an inevitable part of urban life? It sometimes feels like it’s becoming that way but it doesn’t have to be, it shouldn’t be, it is not inevitable. I would almost have disregarded the comment as a troll post but the sad thing is I suspect there really are people who think that way.

I have a similar problem with people jettisoning rubbish from their cars onto my lawn as they turn into the street. My solution was to suck it up and clean the mess every few days.

Sometimes solving the problem takes more effort than dealing with the outcome.

It is littering, whoever is responsible for not containing rubbish properly for whatever reason has to fix it. Call the City Rangers if you have no luck trying to speak to the the people in the flats/body corporate or whatever.

1. Approach your neighbours to confirm that it is their garbage and suggest nicely that they bag everything before binning it in the first place (paper bags of course LOL). Or suggest purchasing a bigger bin.
2. No resolution? Try TAMS (Territory and Municipal Services – http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/Recycling_and_Waste) and see if you can get advise from them.
3. if you are 110% sure that the rubbish is theirs…throe it back onto their lawn..they’ll get the picture

GardeningGirl11:39 am 15 Dec 11

At first I read it as flats meaning apartments but then I wondered if it is a flat area on a steep street? Maybe some clarification? If it is flats/apartments there will be a body corporate. If it is a steep street is the flat area used because the residents prefer it or because the garbage collectors have requested it for accessibility reasons?
I thought at one time if you didn’t fill/position your bin correctly you would get a warning sticker on the bin and if you continued to put your garbage out inappropriately they would stop collecting from your address. I can’t find anything on the TAMS website but I’m sure I’ve read something like that, I know I remember something about warning stickers. So I would try TAMS and their contractors, and if they don’t respond then the relevant minister.

My initial suggestion would be to approach your neighbours and ask them to bag everything before it’s binned. We have the same situation at home, because not all rubbish is bagged. If you don’t get anywhere with them contact the environment people at Territory and Municipal Services (http://www.tams.act.gov.au/live/Recycling_and_Waste) assuming of course you live in ACT.
If it continues with no resolution from TAMS…start throwing it back in their garden…assuming again (I’m like that) that you are 110% that the rubbish is coming from them and not being blown out of the truck when it opens to empty.

I’d say this is in the exact same vein as complaints from those who don’t like their neighbours listening to music, and those who don’t like their neighbours’ gardens full of scrap metal.

The bottom line is, if you can’t cope with the inevitable effects of living in a town, the answer is to move out somewhere in the bush where there are no neighbours.

bearlikesbeer11:26 am 15 Dec 11

If you’re sure which flat the nappy came from, you could always return it. Just stick it in their mailbox. This trick works for me whenever my neighbours’ dog does his business on my lawn. Straight into a plastic bag, and into their mailbox.

“Any suggestions as to what we can do/who we can complain to?”

The people who live at the flats.

I used to live in a house with a bus stop out the front and people would drop their garbage and it would just blow back onto our garden. Some people are just grubs.

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.