illegal dumping Archives - Re-Think Waste

Don’t leave your good waste habits at home

The Cradle Coast Waste Management Group is enlisting the help of visitors to North West Tasmania in an effort to clean up illegally dumped rubbish.

Coastal reserves and nature reserves are common locations for dumping rubbish and are also popular with tourists. To make it easy for visitors to know where to dispose of their waste and recycling and to report any findings of dumped rubbish, the Waste Management Group created a collectable series of postcards with information on waste transfer station locations and contact details for the local council.

Seven cards were produced for each of the Cradle Coast Waste Management Group’s member council areas and are being distributed through visitor information centres.

Signs are also being installed encouraging visitors to not leave their good recycling habits at home and to report sightings of dumped rubbish. Increased surveillance and reporting of dumping hotspots will hopefully encourage offenders to think twice and do the right thing.

This latest campaign against illegal dumping follows from a statewide project to raise awareness of the many waste services available from government, not-for-profit groups and commercial providers to responsibly dispose of bulky, unwanted items. Find out about these disposal options in the Cradle Coast here.

Dumping is not the answer: disposal options in the Cradle Coast

Safely disposing of big loads of household rubbish isn’t as costly or difficult as you might think.

Local councils, not-for-profit groups and commercial businesses all provide a variety of disposal services for bulky, unwanted items. You can give away unwanted items through online networks such as freecycle.org, gumtree or Buy, Sell, Swap pages on Facebook. Often people take these items to repair or repurpose.
There are also commercial recyclers in Tasmania that can take unwanted goods for a fee – search online to find businesses near you (and some are happy to travel and collect materials too).

TYRES
Tyres can be dropped off at most tip/waste management centres for recycling. A fee applies depending on the size of the tyre (usually around $5 – $10 each).
Many car service centres offer a tyre disposal service when they fit new tyres. This fee is often cheaper and more convenient than taking the tyres to the tip yourself.

CARS
Car bodies can be sold for scrap metal recycling and can be collected for free. Contact a car wrecker or ‘cash for car’ service for a quote and to arrange drop off or collection. Some companies pay approximately $50 for a car that they collect or $70 for a car that is dropped off.

GENERAL RUBBISH
Disposal of general rubbish at any of the Cradle Coast tips can cost from approximately $10. Some councils provide tip tickets to residents in their rates notices. Contact your local Council to enquire about disposal fees at your local waste transfer station.
Excess household recyclables such as cans, bottles and cardboard can be dropped off for free at most transfer stations.
Any reusable items can dropped off at a tip shop including Burnie, Central Coast and Spreyton, for resale or reuse.

GREEN WASTE
Green waste can be disposed of at your local waste transfer station.
It is fairly simple to home compost some garden waste such as lawn clippings, leaf litter and small prunings. There’s a Rethink Waste Tasmania fact sheet on Home Composting that you can use as a guide (see our Resources page for details).

FURNITURE
Furniture in usable condition can be sold or donated. Popular online classifieds for the sale of 2nd hand goods include Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace.
Many charity stores accept furniture and some such as the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul offer a free collection service.
Tip shops also accept reusable furniture.

The largest Waste Transfer Stations in Circular Head, Waratah-Wynyard, Burnie, Central Coast, Devonport, Kentish and Latrobe municipal areas all accept electronic waste (e.g. televisions, computers, monitors, printers and accessories) for free recycling drop-off.

Finding it difficult to physically move unwanted bulk items?
Commercial operators can be paid to take away unwanted goods. Household goods in usable condition may also be collected by some charities. Items posted on buy/sell/swap sites are also usually collected and may even be re-purposed or repaired.
Talk to a neighbour or friend about sharing a trailer load for disposal. Secure the load for transport and sort the materials in the trailer so they’re grouped together for quick and easy drop-off.

Seen rubbish dumped where it doesn’t belong?
Report dumping hotspots to your local council and together we can find ways to stop waste items from harming Tasmania’s soil, waterways and environment. Report it and let’s get it sorted!

688 Ute Loads of Litter and Counting

Tasmania’s three regional Waste Management Groups are encouraging everyone to celebrate 30 years of community action against litter by joining a clean-up team on Clean Up Australia Day this Sunday 3 March.

Northern Tasmanian Waste Management Group member, Michael Attard, said that volunteers in last year’s Clean Up Australia Day helped remove the equivalent of 688 ute loads of rubbish from Tasmanian parks, streets and beaches and momentum was growing to do more in 2019.

“Local councils across Tasmania have witnessed a jump in community involvement in how waste is managed. Rising community awareness is driving community expectations around waste management, recycling, litter and marine debris,” Michael said. “Waste is moving from being someone else’s problem to become a hot topic where individuals are recognising the consequences of their actions – from what they buy through to how items are re-used, recycled or safely discarded.”

Clean Up Australia Day is the nation’s largest community-based environmental event, established by Ian Kiernan AO in 1989. There were an estimated 25,000 volunteers collecting litter at Tasmanian clean-up sites last year, up from around 17,000 in 2017.

Although the number of clean up volunteers has grown, some common litter items continue to be a problem across the state.

“Discarded metal and plastics were the biggest sources of rubbish collected in Tasmania last year, with alcoholic and soft drink cans making up the largest number of individual items,” said Michael.
“When looking at the grouped data, beverage containers as a category were the largest at just over 37% of all collected rubbish. States with well-established container deposit schemes such as South Australia report beverage litter at only 10% by comparison.”

“It was encouraging, however, to see a 21% drop in the volume of glass collected last year and an 8% reduction in paper. These items are easily recycled in kerbside bins or at Waste Transfer Stations and so should never end up as litter.”

Participants can register to take part in Clean Up Australia Day and find a local event at www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au.