It’s a sight that’s depressingly common to most grey nomads.
They pull up at a roadside rest stop to take a break or to enjoy a picnic and are greeted by the sight of overflowing bins, and rubbish scattered around by the wind and by wildlife.
Well, in Western Australia at least, it seems the authorities are trying to do something about it.
Travellers are now being warned that they face substantial penalties for illegal dumping if they leave household rubbish at roadside rest stops.
The warning comes after a 53-year-old woman was fined $4,500 and ordered to pay $788.30 costs for dumping household waste at a rest stop at Parryville, between Walpole and Denmark, on four separate occasions earlier this year.
Enough's enough! People putting domestic rubbish in roadside bins have been put on notice. PIC: WA Government
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation Senior Manager Waste Operations, Matt Warnock, said dumping household waste at rest stops put wildlife and the environment at risk.
“In this case, it would have been evident that the rubbish being dumped was spreading into the environment, but the offender kept doing it,” he said. “People using roadside rest stops need to be aware the rest areas are monitored and, if they illegally dump waste, they can expect a substantial penalty.”
Anyone who witnesses illegal dumping is asked to alert the authorities.
“Roadside bins are provided for small items of waste commonly generated during road trips,” said Mr Warnock. “They are not provided to take accumulated household waste … people who need to dispose of significant amounts of waste should use an authorised waste facility.”
This does, of course, put grey nomads who love on the road full-time in a uniquely difficult spot.
Grey nomad, Ross Simon, is retired and loves being on the road and not ‘living life to a schedule … but he says rubbish is a persistent problem.
“I find difficult it pretty difficult taking my rubbish home,” he said. “I often pick up rubbish when I go to a park but my home is on four wheels … where do I dump the rubbish?”
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Those who are on the road for some time should have somewhere to rid themselves of accumulated rubbish. Perhaps rubbish bins could be placed at dump points for this purpose and emptied by the normal rubbish removal truck each week.
I have a bin bag on the back of the car and van they take a fair amount of waste by then I’m usually near a town where I can dump it
Although I agree with the crackdown, I suspect that the bogans will dump in the bush or roadside instead.
I get rid of all possible packaging as soon as I return to my van outside the Shopping Centre then return to the Center & use their disposal bin usually by the door, to dispose of all boxes, plastic etc. I take my vegies out of the plastic & put them in net bags in the fridge, biscuits, chips, nuts etc. go in airtight plastic containers, cereal in cereal containers, obviously milk & tinned goods stay in their containers til used but you can flatten & recycle so much packaging back into the Centre’s bin. Living fulltime in a van can be easy if you think out of the square a bit.
And about time too. Now we need to start fining, and actually collecting the money from the many people who think it acceptable to crap in roadside rest stops, with their soiled toilet paper blowing around the surrounding area. Surely, if they get “caught short” they could at least walk well away from the road to do their business? An implement to dig some sort of a shallow hole is easily found in most cars. In my travels I have many times found rows of turds right along the edges of roadside stops. Animal are better. Cheers
After picking-up a couple of discarded cartons and other rubbish at a rest area and realising it was “now my problem”, I decided to head for town to do some shopping and find somewhere to dump the (not my) rubbish.
one of the town shopkeepers suggested to put it in a skip bin behind the shops.
Unfortunately, that simple fix isn’t available if you’re not planning to go to town.
Well that’s easy. Take it to the nearest Waste management facility. Pay the amount required. It is your rubbish after all. The amount is insignificant when you bear in mind the free facilities Grey nomads utilise eg. Free water and free camping, in most towns. If you stay at a camp ground then it usually is not a problem. If you’re on the road full time, just remember you’re not paying local council rates!!!!!!
I am full time and am paying council rates for my house and unused bins. Swings and roundabouts as far as I’m concerned.
Outside of major cities most council dumps are free. However nothing is free. I paid more income tax in one week than Darwin Casino did in a whole year! You pay more tax on one weeks groceries than 80 of Australia’s biggest companies did in a year. You pay tax on everything except for air, sunshine and wind. I worked for one of Australia’s biggest companies, and produced one of their tax minimisation programs. It was like a gambling program where you always win. Because that us how the law is written.
Try to get rid at a higher frequency rate to keep amounts small.
A few years ago while travelling in WA I pulled into a cleared area at the side oft the road fully intending to stay the night , small car with small trailer and two man tent , couldn’t believe the amount of litter/ rubbish laying around so I decided to clean it up , placing it all into a common heap in a previously constructed rough fire pit. As I was about to set it alight a ranger pulled in and advised me that it was not a camping spot and that I couldn’t stay there, I pointed out that there was no sign to say that but he argued that people leave far too much rubbish around and that’s why NO CAMPING , I pointed around to the now clean space and to the pile I’d collected and was about to burn , he simply smiled , told me he’d be back around midday the next day to check that I hadn’t stayed. I guess not all rangers are stuck on the rule book regardless of the situation
Nomads probably pay far more in their total “tax” bill than they consume in services.
(Even if they have no fixed abode). e.g. GST and Fuel Excise.
I wonder if the percentage of Nomads not paying rates at “home” is very large? (because they do not have a fixed abode).
To be legal under the regime in the story one would have to stop at a roadside stop firstly after breakfast, secondly after lunch and thirdly after evening meal i.e. do the dumping piecemeal – or:
Stop the night in a commercial facility.
Some councils have free facility to dump sump oil, recyclables, batteries – facilities that can be found online – probably few and far between in country towns. Even as ratepayers we recently had to pay by weight to dump some old carpets and a mattress as we could not wait for the kerbside cleanup. Some country towns might only have a cleanup once per year.
Paragraph 4 says travellers are being warned, then paragraph 5 says a 53 yo woman dumped HOUSEHOLD waste. So are WE (the travellers) being blamed or are residential householders being blamed?? We’ve actually seen people who are obviously locals dumping their household rubbish late at night or in the wee hours of the morning in the rest area bins.
don’t forget, nearly anyone can be a litter reporter for the “Keep Australia Beautiful Council” Even people who dump shopping trolleys can be busted for not returning the trolleys. You could have a light mornings entertainment when the other half is shopping
We produce exactly the same amount of rubbish as we do at home, but we are driving our home as travellers. It has to go into roadside bins because I am not paying rubbish disposal fees back home AND the high fees charged at town waste disposal depots, as well as having ro find the depot and travel several km to get there
If I have spent a week somewhere out in the wilderness we generally burn anything burnable on our fire pit but there is no option than put it into a bin as soon as you reach civilisation. Otherwise people would just leave it around the countryside. I have regularly picked up rubbish around, especially Kentucky Fried, McDonalds and take away rubbish. Not just Nomads doing this as apparently the person who did it 4 times and got fined
Council tips need to be free again, it used to be fun rummaging around and finding stuff. But now its all about making money, so poor people or the lazy ones chuck it in the bush.