By KATH GANNAWAY
RESIDENTS must stick to their own bit of turf when it comes to Yarra Ranges hard waste collection, according to the council.
Chum Creek resident Jane Judd is advocating for a road bypass to be made available to other property owners along Chum Creek Road whose properties are on dangerous bends, or on an embankment.
The bypass outside her home has for the past five years become a depository for other people’s rubbish and resulted in the past in the contractor refusing to collect it.
After the first year and having to negotiate a collection and justify that the vast amount of rubbish, including numerous television sets and other multiples of household goods, weren’t all hers, she had taken to reporting the communal use.
“I rang the council on the Monday after I put my hard rubbish out, so I wouldn’t be in the same situation, but was told they would advise the local laws department to have a look.
“What resulted from that is that an ‘under investigation’ tape went up and letters were sent to local people telling them it was an illegal collection point.”
Ms Judd said she could see the sense in people using the area, but admitted there was a problem with people taking advantage and dumping things such as paint tins and tyres which were excluded from the collection.
“I think it’s about being pragmatic. Some residents have kerbing that is 10-foot off the road and for them to try to get their rubbish to that point is very difficult,” she said.
“Maybe they could apply for a right for them to put their rubbish in a more communal spot, which would be one way of people still being responsible for what they dump.”
Ms Judd is an advocate for the re-use, recycling and re-purposing aspects of the hard waste collection and says she is delighted when she puts something out and discovers it’s been ‘collected’ by someone who presumably has a use for it.
Yarra Ranges Council said the annual hard waste collection was provided “from the kerbside”.
Acting Director Environment and Engineering, David Harper, said if residents had a different pick-up point for their weekly bin collection because a standard arrangement couldn’t be accommodated, then the pick-up point for hard waste was the same.
Anything put at different locations will be classified as dumped rubbish.
Mr. Harper said council was informed that the VicRoads bypass area was being used by residents from streets where there was a waste collection service, for hard waste.
He said waste management and local laws looked over the site and letterboxed surroundings streets to inform residents to remove anything they had placed at the bypass.
Rubbish not removed would be deemed dumped rubbish and investigated, which could result in penalties.
Mr Harper said excessive waste material could become unmanageable and waste contractors couldn’t remove it because it was not accessible.
The other problem they faced was unacceptable material such as asbestos and chemicals being dumped at the collection points.
He said it was hard to prove who it belonged to, no-one would take responsibility and council then had to pay specialised contractors.
For queries about weekly bin or hard waste collection phone council’s waste department on 1300 368 333.
