‘Entitled’ act sparks fury among Aussie residents: ‘No excuse’
The shocking images highlight a nationwide problem.
A Queenslander who thought they could get away with dumping their rubbish on the side of the road is about to receive a nasty wake up call after leaving their details all over the scene of the crime. But a local volunteer group says this latest event is only the tip of the iceberg.
In a photo of the incident in Townsville in the state’s north, piles of debris can be seen scattered over the ground. There’s a garden chair, a draw and at least three mattresses as well as a bucket, clothes, and cardboard. But it’s the pages and pages of paper and envelopes that will hopefully catch this crime.
“Merry Christmas to the grubs who dumped their rubbish in the bush off of Toolakea Beach Road,” a local man, who came across the road-side discovery in Bluewater wrote online. “Maybe next time don’t dump mail with your name on it.”
Caught red handed
The social media post has since gone viral, with residents calling on the poster to “name and shame” the person responsible for the “disgusting mess”, saying they “can’t believe anyone could just trash the environment like that”.
“They left it in public, might as well tell the public,” one person wrote. “Tag the dog,” another said. While others urged the man who discovered the scene to “pick it all up and throw it all over their front yard.”
While in an update to Facebook users, the man explained that he “put a report in to the illegal dumping website with their information and photo evidence of their names and addresses on the pieces of mail there”.
According to Queensland Legislation, the maximum person for illegally dumping waste is 400 penalty units if the volume of waste is less than 2,500 litres. With each penalty unit coming in at $154.80, the total cost would be $61,920. While if the waste is over 2,500 litres, the offender could be hit with 1,000 penalty units which would be a $154,800 fine.
Photo highlights larger problem
While someone will be left to clean up the mess, TIDY UP Townsville Group, a local volunteer group, says the problem is about to get a whole lot worse as people clean up after Christmas.
“With Christmas and people moving in and out, we generally see a lot more dumping than normal at this time of year — out with the old, in with the new,” Dave Duley, the organisation’s co-ordinator, told Yahoo News Australia. “Most of the waste we find could go in domestic bins, or the green waste, batteries, oil waste, steel, white goods or oil paint could be taken to the tip for free, or the council runs a curb-side collection and you could have a skip delivered. Yet we find it dumped in the bush.”
Dave blames Townsville’s “large transient population” with “a lot of people up this way that feel entitled to do as they please”.
These people are just too lazy to do the right thing but there is NO EXCUSE ever,” he said. “And here we go — this roller coaster of dumping will be massive over the next couple of weeks and we have NO ONE to tackle it when it occurs and NO ONE out there patrolling to prevent it. Just the public.
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