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It is one of those irritating situations if someone in your neighbourhood tosses their trash into your waste container without your consent. But, before we all get provoked about this unethical behaviour let us learn on where our law stands in this kind of situation.
According to the Littering offences under the POEO Act (1997), “Littering (including littering from vehicles): depositing litter on land or waters in a public place or an open private place.”
In addition, under Section 144A of the POEO Act “open private place” is described as: “Examples of open private places include gardens or yards around private residences or industrial premises, farm or grazing land and privately-owned vacant land.”
To fully understand each angle concerning this matter, let’s digest what is littering and stuffing. Littering and stuffing are two different things. When you are littering, you are getting rid of an object or trash by tossing it somewhere. Stuffing, on the other hand, is an act of shoving an object into a receptacle or container.
Under section 144A of the POEO Act, littering is against the law meanwhile stuffing trash into someone else’s waste container is admissible. Sadly, we can’t dispute any legal actions from those who do ‘illegal stuffing’ in your waste bins. There’s no concrete statement written in the said article that if someone will stuff or dump its trash into someone else’s waste bin is illegal.
Frustrating, but, the least we can do is contest the person who litters around our property to pay for its misconduct. They get fined, no more arguments and that’s it.
Our law says that an individual and every household are responsible for their own waste. Littering and tossing your waste is socially and environmentally unacceptable. Unfortunately, there’s always this one person in our community who refuses to clean after its own waste. And opt for an easy way to dump its trash into its neighbour’s bin.
It might seem a petty problem, but, clearly, it is still an unethical habit. It’s not just you who despise this kind of attitude, obviously, we all do. You can’t just stuff or toss your trash for other people to clean after your mess. Since there are no definite obligations or legal actions made for this ill behaviour, let’s take this matter into our hands.
Tips to Secure Your Waste Container
1. Talk to the person directly
If you notice someone or somebody in the neighbourhood is stuffing trash into your waste container, talk to them directly.
2. Cover it
If the situation is yet manageable and hasn’t gotten out of control, a simple lid will do for your waste container.
3. Buy skip bin locks
If you’re left with no choice since lids won’t work and things have escalated whilst talking to them directly. Lock your skip bins or any waste container you have outside.
4. Invest in security cameras
Image or video evidence is one of the best tips we can give you since the person can no longer deny its wrongful actions.
5. Call the proper authorities
If all else fail, calling the police is one of the best measures given the unfortunate situation to resolve the problem right away.
If these tips are quite overwhelming for you, we at Aussie Junkoffers the simplest and easiest solution. In order to avoid any altercation in the future between the waste container owner and bin stuffers all you have to do is hire an affordable rubbish removal services.
Conclusion
The legality of stuffing one’s trash from another person’s bin is definitely questionable. Let’s just hope that someone in our council will create a legal action regarding this matter. Despite all the inconvenience it caused, this misconduct will never undergo any due process any time soon. At this moment, one of the most effective ways to overcome this issue is hiring rubbish removal services to prevent this kind of unethical habit.
Aussie Junkoffers a fast and convenient way to dispose of all types of waste. Give us a call today at 0435 569 921 to determine which services suit your needs.
