A new draft strategy targeting littering and illegal dumping of waste in the Ballina Shire is on display for public feedback until the end of the month.
Council staff put the draft to councillors at last month’s ordinary meeting for endorsement, with all councillors voting in favour.
Staff told the meeting the council had had some big gains over the last five-to-ten-year period, particularly around illegal dumping.
The introduction of a specialised trailer and better infrastructure, including cameras, had helped, along with a lot of prevention work, staff said.
But staff notes on the meeting’s agenda showed it was costing the council around $100,000 each year to clean up and dispose of illegally dumped materials.
The cost of cleaning up litter was reportedly more difficult to quantify.
Commercial tyre waste a regional issue
Councillors heard staff would apply for grant funding to help implement a new Illegal Dumping and Litter Reduction Strategy aimed at embedding anti-littering and anti-illegal dumping behaviour in the Ballina Shire.
The strategy features what staff describe as an integrated approach of education and awareness, infrastructure and enforcement, along with monitoring and evaluation of actions.
Six priority areas for illegal dumping are to be targeted: household/general waste; household white goods, and furniture; green waste; building and demolition waste including soil; tyres; and asbestos.
Ballina’s data for 2019 show household waste was the most commonly dumped waste type at 61%, with green waste at 8%, commercial & industrial and scrap metal at 5% and tyres at 5% of incidents.
The strategy says a regional problem has been identified with the collection, tracking and illegal dumping of waste tyres on a commercial scale.
Seemingly random roadside dumping is often well planned, the strategy says, and carried out to ensure detection and fines are avoided.
‘The behaviour can be reinforced when offenders see the dumped waste being cleaned-up by councils or other land managers, therefore ensuring that the offender has effectively cost-shifted the responsibility of disposal to a third party’, the strategy says.
Illegal landfills to be targeted
Illegal dumping also includes instances where landowners have given consent for rubbish to be used as landfill without official approvals or licences.
EPA data shows construction and demolition waste and contaminated soil are the most common types of waste illegally landfilled.
The NSW EPA’s Illegal Dumping Report found young people, males and those in full-time employment were among the most likely to illegally dump waste elsewhere other than or in addition to the kerbside.
Cr Meehan says push bikes, busted surfboards and furniture dumped on coastal road
Independent Councillor Phillip Meehan moved in support of the strategy, congratulating staff on the document.
The independent councillor said illegal dumping was going on constantly near where he lived.
Anything from old push bikes to half a surfboard to pieces of furniture and bags of domestic rubbish was being dumped on the street side of the strip along the coast road, around the council bins and in the car park, Cr Meehan said.
People were being lazy and just taking what they saw as an easy option, he said.
‘You know, the cost is one thing but the impacts upon our environment and the aesthetic nature of our beautiful shire are another thing,’ Cr Meehan said, before referring to ‘hot spots in some of the country and rural areas’ of the shire and saying ‘folks within those areas’ would be well aware of them.
Council to push for heavier fines
The meeting happened two days before the state election and Cr Rodney Bruem took the opportunity to suggest a fourth point be added to the staff recommendation.
Staff had essentially recommended councillors adopt the strategy, put it on exhibition and then have staff report back.
Cr Bruem suggested the council also write to the relevant incoming minister and review its littering fines.
It is a criminal offence under the NSW Protection of the Environment Operations Act to wilfully or negligently dispose of waste in a manner that harms the environment, as highlighted in the new strategy.
The strategy says it is also an offence ‘to transport waste to a place that cannot be used as a waste disposal facility’.
In both instances, the person who deposits or transports the waste and the owner of the waste are liable for fines or prosecution.
Directors and management of corporations are also held liable for breach offences.
But Cr Bruem said he’d noticed in the report that the fines hadn’t changed since 1997.
‘There’s a carrot and stick approach, you make it attractive to people to not litter but also you hit those that do,’ he said.
Councillors ended up agreeing on a fourth part to the recommendation, which was to write to the relevant incoming local government minister, the office of the local government of New South Wales and to the Country Mayors Association ‘seeking a review of the fines imposed for littering’.
Bruem calls for more roadside bins
Cr Bruem also suggested adding parking bays with roadside bins to the shire’s network.
‘I’ve been really impressed traveling around Australia seeing some shires where there are road bays where you can pull in and people can dump their car rubbish in bins beside the road,’ Cr Bruem said.
‘I think that’s a really good initiative, I’d like to see that more of that happening here in our shire, and indeed around the north coast,’ he said.
‘I imagine it’s probably a nightmare for councils to have to empty those bins but there’s so much roadside litter that happens and at the moment, we’re relying very much on people pulling into service stations and putting it into the bins there,’ Cr Bruem said, ‘it must be a nightmare for those service station operators to have to keep emptying their bins all the time.’
Greens Councillor Simon Chate suggested the staff strategy target of a ten per cent reduction in illegal waste dumping by 2028 was too modest but staff indicated it was in line with progress to date and they were happy to consider a revised target.
The strategy is on display via the Ballina Shire Council website and available for feedback until 28 April.
A curb side pick up of items too big for bins would go a long way to ending illegal dumping. Quite often, things put out for collection are taken by other people who can put them to use. Ballina council has always been reluctant to offer this service but other councils provide it.