1 October 2024

'Second-hand Sundays': Labor's plan to reduce Canberra's illegal dumping problem

| James Coleman
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Politicians looking through waste

Labor has promised to trial a new kerbside bulky-waste collection program in 20 suburbs across Canberra’s north and south. Photo: ACT Labor.

“Nothing’s more frustrating” for Canberra’s teams of lawnmowers than coming across a soggy mattress abandoned in the long grass, according to ACT Minister for City Services Tara Cheyne.

“It’s a real diversion of resources,” she says.

“The crews have to collect the mattress, they have to take it to the tip, and that all has to happen before they can get started on their jobs. It’s enormously frustrating.

“But I also appreciate that if people are going to those lengths to dump something like that, it signals a greater issue across our community.”

Weeks out from the election, ACT Labor has promised a solution to this, and it’s called ‘Second-hand Sundays’.

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The party promises to trial a new kerbside bulky-waste collection program in 20 suburbs across Canberra’s north and south.

Residents will be able to place unwanted items on the nature strips outside their homes on a designated Sunday, and between then and when the government’s crews come along to collect them on the Monday, passers-by are invited to pick through and take what they want.

At the moment, the government allows each household one collection per financial year of up to two cubic metres of bulky items too big for your kerbside bins, such as old furniture and broken appliances.

Residents book it up to six months in advance through the ACT Government website and place the items out (in an “easily accessible spot” within your property boundary) no more than 48 hours in advance of the collection date and no later than 7 am on the day.

But if you live in an apartment or townhouse with shared waste, you have to contact your body corporate or building manager to make a booking on your behalf, and that’s the first problem, according to Ms Cheyne.

“What we know is that there is a challenge currently with the bookable bulky waste collection service for some of our larger apartments that might not necessarily have the engagement of the strata managers or a dedicated space to be able to put things,” she said.

“But if they’re able to have one day of being able to spread it out on a curb and know that it’s collected by the Monday or Tuesday, that might really suit them.”

She also said it would encourage more people to reuse and recycle.

“Different to other jurisdictions, which discourage the idea of scavenging through other people’s goods that are put on the curbside, we actually want people to be able to see what’s there, and what’s close to their home that they might be able to use or perhaps repair,” she said.

“We want to … draw on what we see at Goodies Junction, where people are donating all sorts of wonderful goods that, with a little bit of TLC, can then be repurposed, reused and to have a second lease on life.”

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Even when they do get into government hands, not all of the items collected through the bulky waste service go into landfill either.

“Where possible, items will be reused or recycled,” the government says on the City Services website.

Labor hasn’t named the suburbs, except they’ll contain a “diverse range” from the north and south. The expansion will also be built into a new contract with waste collection company JJ Richards and Sons, coming into effect from April 2025.

Ms Cheyne is “quietly confident” they’ll be able to expand it to the rest of Canberra, but only once they’ve seen some “positive impacts”.

“We’d be looking for a reduction in illegal dumping and taking up of goods and not having much to actually collect because of the success of Second-hand Sundays.”

three people standing around kerbside rubbish

City Services Minister Tara Cheyne, Downer resident Erin Priestly and Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Photo: ACT Labor.

The program will also be accompanied by a crackdown on illegal dumping as the government will have “a range of options for people to be taking up”.

Erin Priestly, a Downer mum, is already keen.

Her “very young family” is in that season of life where items are really only needed for six to 12 months. She said, “It would be wonderful to be able to leave those items out for my neighbours and the rest of the suburb to go through and choose what they might need, and also for me to be able to go through their items for that next stage of our lives as well”.

There are several existing ‘Buy Nothing’ groups in Canberra that work in a similar fashion, but Erin says it will be easier to “travel around your own suburb on foot”.

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GrumpyGrandpa9:22 pm 01 Oct 24

When we had our last Bulky Waste pickup, there were 2 trucks. Most of our stuff was simply thrown in the back of an ordinary garbage truck and crushed.
A small amount was placed in the 2nd truck.
To me it appeared pretty obvious. There was minimal recycling happening. It’s all just government marketing.

Recycling & reusing is a great idea, but limiting people to a once-a-year pickup is not enough. Maybe if Bulky Waste was more regular, it’d work better?

I have no doubt that much of our dumping is a consequence of the government’s tip fees. They are a significant disincentive to people doing the right thing.

Surprise surprise! Barr’s not naming the suburbs at the heart of his policy. With an election imminent one can only assume it’s another hollow promise. It certainly won’t benefit the inner south as nothing ever does, although they could just be the suburbs where people would enjoy a drive through for giveaways.

The first photo looked like Barr looking for some worthwhile policy ideas in someone else’s stuff. Just place the current mob (ALP, Greens and Libs) in a wheelie bin and collect soon along with their distracting corflutes. If you look closely at the green box in the second photo does that say Farty Hits….sorry it must be Party Hits. 😜

Rupert Samuel2:30 pm 01 Oct 24

The Central Coast Council in NSW has a very similar arrangement to what’s being proposed. It works quite well, and it’s certainly better than the free market approach of dumping stuff in the park because you’re too cheap to pay the tip or recycling fee, and you don’t need a trailer or a ute to dispose of bulky goods.

Haven’t seen Barr out campaigning at all, and then out of nowhere he’s got two weak policies announced on the same day. Maybe he’s feeling the heat for once? Snapping out of his complacency?

Incidental Tourist7:40 am 01 Oct 24

What are they trying to encourage?
If you take old mattress or furniture to a tip then you have to pay dumping fees on top and above your effort. But instead they want you to dump bulky stuff on the roadside absolutely free?? Sounds like encouraging mess not just in health, education, housing, policing and rates but also literally on streets.
Will it be better to encourage residents to take their no longer needed stuff to Mitchell or Mugga lane centres to either recycle it or discard it absolutely free without any risk of being charged for anything you bring along? I mean “free” to get anything back out of triple rates.

Just copy QLD and add a small fee to our rates that allows free use of tip for all residents. $5 a quarter should cover it.

we already have the most expensive rates in the country for the least service and you want them to charge more?

Valerie Cochrane6:57 pm 30 Sep 24

Is this all can come up with this has been happening fir decades in other states and works well but no we have to trial it. Oh please come on I guess we could always use the light rail to remove it

Is there a collection service for our waste-of-space pollies? Seriously, kerbside collections have been a mainstay of local councils all around Australia for decades. But under our Dear Leader, it is an exciting new CBR event called “Second-hand Sundays!” Talk about spin.

Is that seriously all they could muster? Labor are a joke, it’s time to give them a spell on the bench

Just make taking things to the dump free like it used to be. I don’t want people scabbing through my rubbish.

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