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more distribution more readers more often Thursday July 13, 2006
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Rubbishing Roxby down
Above: rubbish scattered at the entrance to the Opal Road Landfil. Roxby Downs’ reputation as a clean town is rapidly changing. A number of recent media reports and a well placed Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow joke have drawn attention to the worsening problem of litter and rubbish in and around the town. Joint chair of the newly formed Environmental Partnerships’ waste management sub-committee, Adam Bester, said the rubbish problem was getting out of hand. “There is litter clearly visible all the way along Olympic Way on the way to the tip and it decreases the aesthetic appeal of the town and detracts from tourism,” Mr Bester said. Manager of the Opal Road Landfill, Brenton Smith, said every day that the landfill is open, people drive out to the site with uncovered trailers and unsecured rubbish - much of which finishes up on the road and in the scrub lining the road. “Every day my employees are picking up litter and debris from the side of the road when they travel to and from work. “But they can’t pick everything up themselves and so lots of what falls off trailers and onto the road ends up scattered around the
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Inset: uncovered trailers are the main culprit.
scrub. It’s just not on,” he said. Mr Smith said he had already started discussions with the police and the Roxby Downs Council to try and stop the problem. “We’ve entered into negotiations with the police and the council on the best way to police this issue. I would like people to be aware that in the following months we will be closely observing the loads and trailers that people bring to the landfill,” Mr Smith said. Other motorists are also endangered by unsecured rubbish, especially on dirt roads where visibility may already be diminished. Senior Constable Scott Cheers of the Roxby Downs police said the fine for motorists found driving with unsecured loads was $218, with an additional three demerit points. “Insecure loads have the potential to cause extreme hazards to other road users when articles get dislodged and land on the roadway.” “This is in addition to the harm caused to the environment by articles or items that blow from trailers where the load is uncovered or not secured,” Senior Constable Cheers said.
Local KESAB organiser Stephen Moss said the problem would not go away by itself. “The rubbish issue has been around for a long time and as a community we really need to address it,” he said. “What blows me away is that people fill up their utes and trailers with rubbish without covering it up and then they drive to the landfill with stuff falling out onto the road as they go.” “On the way back they must see their rubbish lying on the road but they don’t bother to pick it up,” he said. Mr Moss said weekends were particularly bad and that anyone who drove out to the dump would see how much waste blew off the road into the scrubland. As KESAB organiser, Mr Moss said he would be doing his best to clean up Roxby Downs. “I would like arranging a winter clean-up of the town and I’ve been thinking that somewhere around the middle of September would be an ideal time but I have to find out if enough people would be interested,” he said.
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