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A hard rubbish mix-up has Bendigonians asking some tough questions about how the city deals with second-hand household goods which are either ending up in landfill or being illegally dumped.
Police have called on those who took a family’s belongings after they left them on a nature strip while moving house to come forward, saying they could face criminal charges of theft.
It is believed the culprits mistook the items – which included tools and childrens’ toys – for hard rubbish.
But Bendigo Police Acting Sergeant Ian Randall said ignorance was no excuse.
“You can’t just go and take anything you want,” he said.
The reaction of many Bendigo Advertiser readers on social media, however, was more sympathetic to the opportunistic passers-by.
By Monday afternoon, Zharlah Rae McCurdy’s comment on our Facebook page attracted more than 100 likes – more than double the article itself and the next most popular comment, which echoed a similar sentiment.
“Why would they leave it on the nature strip?” Ms McCurdy wrote. “That pretty much says 'Take me.'”
Despite community acceptance of the idea of hard rubbish finding new owners on the street, the City of Greater Bendigo said regulating this form of recycling would be too costly.
Acting waste services manager Gary Leech said the 2014 Waste Strategy investigated introducing a hard waste collection and found it was not feasible to do so.
”Hard waste needs to be disposed of correctly,” Mr Leech said.
“Some high quality hard waste can be recycled, either through charities or the Recycle Centre at the Eaglehawk landfill… if it cannot be recycled, then it has to be disposed of through landfill.
“Kerbside collections would be an expensive service and ratepayers would have to bear the cost.”
But even as the city encourages residents to help their used goods find a new home, charities are saying they are forking out hundreds of dollars a year in disposing of rubbish dumped in their collection bins.
Mr Leech said the city was “willing to look at solutions” to assist charities to reduce the amount of inappropriate dumping at their charity bins, citing enforcement where the offenders can be identified.
“Periodically there are issues with people illegally dumping goods on their nature strip and people do face fines of up to $303 for doing so.”
