The Grubs of Gunghetto

This isn’t a new problem, it’s been happening for years. Surely it isn’t cost effective for charities to spend all the time and effort to collect all the “donations” and then dispose of the rubbish (which I’m guessing would make up the greater % of what is collected). The charities are always complaining about the amount of money it costs them to dump all the rubbish – easy solution, scrap the bins. Or, as someone suggested, have bins inside shopping centres where they are under the gaze of Centre Management as well as the general public so there shouldn’t be any junk (none on the outside anyway…).

I’m not sure how all the ‘charities’ work now but a couple of years ago I had a brand new queensize ensemble (still in plastic) that I didn’t need. Rang one ‘charity’ and was told “yeah they’d take it” Would just cost ME $50 for them to pick it up!!!!
Rang a few others and none were interested. Finally contacted another who said they’d pick it up any time that suited me. Went in a few days later they had $200 on it.

The charity bin dumping will be a never ending issue until they remove them. Then I guess the park bins etc will cop it.

Second-Hand Sunday is a poor substitute for a serious hard waste collection… worse still, there hasn’t even been one of those since March last year!

One can only hope their absence is due to the govt working to soften up the Greens and get them to agree to a proper cleanup.

I agree with the comment “charities turn away plenty of ‘good-ish’ stuff that clearly isnt beyond re-use”. We had a piece rejected for nothing more than a sticky drawer, surely fixable. Later I saw the girl on Better Homes and Gardens purchase something in far worse condition from the very same charity (different branch obviously) and jazz it up for a room makeover. Just a vague idea, make the charities give up on the bins AND on the frustrating pick-up service (“we’re booked out for ages… we need to know exactly how much you’ve got… no, we can’t tell you when we’ll be there, just leave it outside… what if it rains? Don’t worry about it”). Instead they could get together and run a really big warehouse with sufficient space for everything from “as new” to “needs minor repairs” to “only good for spare parts or raw materials”. Combined they could offer a frequent reliable pick-up service, so when you have something one phonecall sorts it, not multiple calls to find out who takes exactly what and when can they come. If I felt like my donation would remain in the same condition as when I gave it (not rained on, soiled by other donations of a questionable nature, damaged by staff) and there was a good chance someone who could use it would get to see it, whether they want something nice for the house or cheap and sturdy for the garage or full of potential for their creative urges, I would be more inclined to donate. Lately it’s gotten too hard and if in doubt throw it out is wasteful and costs to do properly but ultimately seems more efficient and much less of a headache. On the occasions when I have left something in a donation bin I have truly wondered whether it was even found under the trash or did it end up being thrown out anyway.
“No more waste by 2010”, what hope was there when even the pubic servants didn’t know about it. I rang to clarify where to dispose of something and didn’t get any further than I had done on the website, and when I commented that we didn’t seem to be on track to achieve “no waste by 2010” he needed an explanation of what I was referring to and then he insisted I must be thinking of a Federal program because it certainly wasn’t a local program.
IMO the whole thing needs to be rethought, including the availability of cheap new items that seem almost designed to turn into rubbish within a short space of time. Our first (fabric) lounge suite lasted over twenty years and leather was something only older richer folks aspired to and then they took care of it like an heirloom piece, our first vcr was a luxury we put off buying until we were ready. Now you can buy fake leather on a whim and dvd players in the supermarket. Add in people’s lack of consideration for others and no wonder we’re drowning in garbage.

Get rid of the bins or have all the charities congretate their bins in some sort of collection centre where a person is present during operating hours and can say yay or nay to goods being presented.

Have a camera after hours that records dumpers. Can’t be that hard can it?

Perhaps recycling bins should be emptied weekly instead of fortnightly? We fill our recycling bin up more than our rubbish bin, and if recycling was changed to weekly maybe this would help allieviate this problem?

I don’t believe in scrapping tip fee’s, this is just an excuse made by these bogans and their apologists to justify their dumping. Simple solution, move the bogans on somewhere else!

A lot of of this stuff will disappear overnight, re-appearing in the morning as new fixtures in some Charnlop dwellings

Two issues here:

1. People who leave usefull worthwhile stuff and actually put in in the Collection bins for the charity.

From this we have the scum who retreive it from the bins and go through it looking for….whatever. Basically stealing from the charities. Creates rubbish and mess at the sites and causes the Charity pain because they have to clean the mess and they lose the opportunity to sell the donated stuff and make some $$.

2. Worthless indivduals who dump crap at the bins because they are too lazy to go to the dump or whatever. Also creates rubbish and mess at the sites and causes the Charity pain because they have to clean the mess.

I suggest a 2 point plan – surveilance cameras to catch the low lifes going through bins (and stealing) or dumping rusbbish at the bins and have the ACT govt clean up the mess instead of imposing the cost and work on the charities.

As someone ho has actually lived outside canberra, tip fees here are cheap as chips. went to a transfer station in Melbourne a few weeks ago and paid $40 for a ute load that I would pay $10 here.

There is no excuse for the pigs that dump their crap on the street. Get rid of the bins and the prople who want to dump their clothes will go to the charity shops. The grubs will just scatter it elsewhere.

Bogues will be bogues.

Hmm, I agree and bogans will be bogans. I just wish they’ed stay on the south side. Isn’t that why Kambah was built??

No more waste by 2010, the government is to blame.

_some_ of the people are probably doing it for the right reasons. Gungahlin used to have about 10-15 of these bins in the open woolies car park. A while ago I noted that the bins had been reduced to 4 and moved to that car park.
Doesn’t matter how many bins there are, or where they’re located, people always fill them up.

They could do better advertising of what other services are available. Anytime I’ve moved and wanted to unload items (including furniture) I ring Anglicare or similar and book a time for their van to come and collect the items.
If its metal, ezyscrap takes it away for free.

Take away the bins permanently. People will have to
a) walk their bags into charity stores
b) pay dump fees
c) make alternate arrangments (physical collection/ezyscrap)

Personally, I’d rather not have rates go up to support free trips to the tip.

It really ticks me off seeing those couches there. You can just call up the Salvos about large items, and if they’re interested they’ll send a truck to your house. If they don’t want it, they’ll tell you as much, so you know not to dump it at the fucking bins. No excuse.

I do get grumpy when i see these piles of junk, though on the upside I picked up a nice outdoor table from the steaming pile of junk which was attracting ants outside Palmerston shops!

+1 to Jim @ 19. I have no sympathy for the dumpers and am amazed that anyone could. The stuff that could be of ust to a charity can be dropeed off at a number of sites directly and the stuff that can’t be used should not be there in the first place

+1 to the council clean up days.

Maybe also something like a voucher system… rate payers in Brisbane get a set number of vouchers for a free visit to the dump.

On a side note – I noticed on my afternoon stroll yesterday an unusually large number of un-emptied yellow recycling bins. It appeared that the bins that were not emptied were all slightly overfilled… when I say slightly, I actually mean it. Any bin that had so much as a one cm gap between lid and bin was not emptied. If this is a policy it is a pretty stupid one, considering that yellow bins are only emptied every two weeks but fill up quicker than general waste bins and considering we just had Xmas/New Years, meaning lots of people would have more boxes, etc to recycle. Does this mean people will be forced to put non-recyclables in general waste?

Council clean-up days definitely stop this kind of thing, with FURNITURE being dumped. I was amazed to find that a comparatively rich city like Canberra doesn’t do it. A bit of junk lying around for a week is not enough to pollute people’s beautifully-maintained nature strips….

Whatever the punishment is, can we apply this to the same dickheads who were moving out of a flat in Lyneham, and who decided that the communal bins were suitable to dump their shitty old desks and computer parts BY. Not even IN the frigging bins, but dotted on the lawn by them, making the place look like some rubbish tip in India waiting for the poor buggers to scavenge the computer parts.

Tiny’s green shed would take most of this stuff for free wouldn’t it?

“Council cleanup days really should happen here (particularly as they end up operating as a defacto ‘trash and treasure’), but I’d hazard a guess that the problem would still exist.”

We have these over the border (you get 2 per year) and they are brilliant.

As for cleaning up unwanted trash, sounds like a job for those on Work For The Dole.

Strange indictment on some resident’s outlook and psychology if they believe that the solution to most social problems is through the imposition of fines, more cameras and more stringent policing.

When it comes to people dumping trash – fair enough – on the spot fine. On the other hand, charities turn away plenty of ‘good-ish’ stuff that clearly isnt beyond re-use.

I think the citizenry can legitimately expect that given the exorbitant rates we pay, some form of council-type garbage removal should be offered. Irony is that if this were so, the service would probably be out-sourced at an expensive rate to a poor service provider, and land rates would continue going up but at a higher rates.

I reckon 2 or 3 pieces of public ‘art’ less per year should cover the cost of such a service – but Canberra surely couldnt fare without its bronze-cast, dadaist turd sculptures in the city or its multi-coloured steel contraptions..

Council cleanup days really should happen here (particularly as they end up operating as a defacto ‘trash and treasure’), but I’d hazard a guess that the problem would still exist.

A lot of people are self-entitled jerks.

Bogues will be bogues.

If the ACT Government had scheduled “council cleanup” days like most other councils in Australia, this wouldn’t be the problem it is.

Using tip fees as an excuse for this sort of disgusting behaviour simply highlights the fact that these grubs and the arse-hat apologists have a self-inflated sense of entitlement. Tip fee are a fact of life for pretty much anyone living in a capital city. These jumped up little butt-plugs could dump trailer loads of their crap for less than the cost o a packet of Longbeach 40s.

Why the charities persist in providing a venue for these mully-breeders to dump their skid-mark stained Frisco furniture and out-grown Supre clothing is beyond me.

“4th option: More charity bins & more volunteers to sort donations.”

And where do you expect the charities to get the money from for more bins or find more volunteers?

This disgusts me. The bins in Erindale and Wanniassa are always piled up with rubbish and the only reason is because people are lazy. Charities spend so much money annually on cleaning up the rubbish people dump at their bins it’s ridiculous.

“I sympathise with the dumpers here.”

You sympathise with people who dump their rubbish for charities to deal with and pay to have removed?

Yeah, that’s a real ‘rebellious’ way to think, ignoring the very notion of individual responsibility in favour of ‘can’t somebody do it for me’.

What I never understand is why these people don’t just dump that crap in some random carpark? At least then the charity doesn’t have to get involved.

Or make friends with someone who has access to a dumpster at home or work, and piff the stuff in there…

Make a deal with shopping centres to get smaller, attractive-looking clothing deposit bins *inside* the centres and get the charities that want them to clear them daily / twice a week / whatever’s appropriate. If necessary, give the centres a cut of the bin’s profits to do so. It’d even look good for them – community engagement etc.

People dump crap at these roadside bins because they’re too friggin’ lazy to go further than a few metres from their car, and they know they won’t be seen doing it. They aren’t going to lug a busted TV inside a shopping centre in the day under the watchful gaze of mall security, cameras and shoppers to dump it.

It happens all around Australia where there are Charity bins not being monitored .

This could be revealing my naivete, but isn’t it normal to have to pay to use the tip? I’m pretty sure we had to pay in Perth when I was a kid, but I haven’t needed to go to the tip for ages.

Agree with schmeah, amarooresident3 and others – fees have nothing to do with it.

The irony here of course is that these charity bins are located diagonally opposite the around-the-clock staffed Gungahlin Police Station – visible in the background in the photos!

Also, not a good look for the recently opened Abode Apartment Hotel – directly opposite this car park – and also visible in the photos.

Fees might be part of the issue, but this was a problem long before fees were introduced. Some people are just lazy, inconsiderate arseholes.

4th option: More charity bins & more volunteers to sort donations.

I’m inclined to agree with #4. It’s not like this doesn’t happen every year. It would be great if people could sort their stuff and dispose all of it appropriately. So maybe the charities could remove the bins for two weeks, or maybe the tips could be f.o.c. for two weeks. And yes, we could have a better pickup service, apologies for going offpost, and bring back the Ainslie transer station

No Troll – Sniffer, remove the tip fees, and the dumpers will still leave rubbish at every bin in town. I think the fees are a small part of dumping, the real reason behind it is selfishness, laziness and a common disregard for others.

Sure, the bins should be cleaned up at no expense to the charity, but anti – dumping laws should actually be enforced.

Yeah, fight the power. Maybe if these noble protesters want to make their voices heard they should think about dumping their crap on government land instead of making charities pay to have it taken away.

Orrrrr… they could just be selfish twats looking for grounds to delude themselves into believing they’re doing the right thing.

ACT Govt should put high-res cameras on nearby shops / light poles / etc as most dumpers drive their vehicles directly to the bins. Get the rego plates, issue fines, problem goes away.

I sympathise with the dumpers here. Call me a rebel but I hold an old-fashioned view that we pay our rates which include the operation of a suitable tip for the inevitable excess possessions we end up with in this consumerist society. To have tip fees foisted on us on top of rates is seen by many as an unfair impost, and sadly the above examples are the result.

Remove the tip fees and a lot of this sort of dumping will go away. No amount of tsk tsking or preaching or standing on a soapbox or riding a white horse of righteousness will change the dumpers’ mindset, they feel aggrieved and are simply playing the payback game.

Personally I believe the guvmnt should roster a couple of teams to go around to the shopping centres and clean up anything not in a bin on Monday mornings, the hit on the territory budget wouldn’t be great and the charities would be left alone to do what they do best… look after the contents of their bins.

The bins outside Kaleen Plaza are the same. Just piles of garbage, old TVs etc. I grind my teeth every time I walk past them. I can’t fathom what is going through the minds (if they have any) of the people who do this. Surely they can’t honestly believe that they are making a contribution to charity, so how do they rationalise what they are doing?

argh! Dumpers, save some money by not pissing it against a wall and go to the dump, and no more shall I have to witness the human crap, including VB cans in the thousands and dirty nappies (plus real human turd) that one such dumper left in Calwell one morning.

This really infuriates me. The charity bins at the Jerrabomberra shops get in the same state regularly, and I think others just about anywhere you care to mention. Why can’t people get it through their thick skulls that what they’re doing is creating a huge burden for the charities? Yes, there’s tip fees, but in Jerra, the council will come around twice a year and clear stuff from your nature strip at no charge. You even get to book the week you want them to come. So what excuse is there? Probably needless to say, I vote for the stocks and filth flinging. And if I see morons contributing to this mess, I’ll confront them and shame them.