Dear Northern Tasmania,
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
We have a problem. There are cigarette butts littering kerbsides, rubbish dumped in bushland and empty drink containers left in parks.
We have a mix-up when disposing of recycling by putting it in the wrong bin, or disposing of our garden waste in the recycling bin.
Is it really that hard to dispose of unwanted waste responsibly? What about Tasmania’s clean, green image?
Australia is one of the highest waste producers in the world and was ranked in the top five waste producing nations on a per person basis, according to Living Smart’s Australian waste statistics.
From the 18 million tonnes of waste a year Australians produce, about seven million tonnes comes from the household sector.
Statistics from Clean Up Australia Day show that in Tasmania the top five rubbish items are food packaging, beverage containers, non-food packaging, chip and confectionery wrappers and beverage rubbish.
On an individual item breakdown this equates to pieces of glass, cigarette butts, soft drink bottles, alcoholic and soft drink beverage cans.
The most polluted sites are our waterways, parks and at the beach, roadways, bushland and at school grounds.
Instead of fixing broken items like microwaves and coffee tables, we are likely to turf our former treasures and replace them with something new.
Given the extensive work done by councils as part of the Northern Tasmania Waste Management Group, dumping and littering of waste is still continuing to occur.
The City of Launceston has worked extensively to provide weekly kerbside rubbish collection and fortnightly recycling service.
It operates a secondhand tip shop for salvageable items at its Mowbray waste site and has a hard waste service. Most recently it announced its voluntary food organics and garden organics collection service.
While rural regions of Tasmania may not have the same level of kerbside rubbish collections, general refuse disposal at the tip is not overly expensive. Tip management fees included in rates are also lower in price compared with those who do receive kerbside collection.
Northern Tasmania, it is time to think smarter when it comes to rubbish and remember that people can be fined by the Environmental Protection authority for dumping their household waste.