No, it’s not OK to ditch your empties

ANOTHER Clean Up Australia Day over, with the level of roadside rubbish significantly greater than the previous few years. As a member of a community group who spends a lot of hours picking up the detritus thoughtlessly tossed by others, I observe the following.

To the person who dismantled and tossed out several large pieces of exercise equipment, it is not OK. To the person who tosses out empty whiskey bottles, it’s not OK, even (particularly) if you wrap them tightly in plastic bags. To the DYI person who tossed out lots of bits of renovation equipment, it’s not OK. To the many people who clearly drive along our roads drinking alcoholic drinks, it’s not OK to ditch the empties as you go.

To the person who carefully drove up one of our side roads to dump a very large amount of green waste by a resident’s gate, it’s not OK.

Finally to those responsible for dumping more than 60 tyres down our banks, requiring ropes and the efforts of several men to collect, it definitely is not OK to save a few dollars by polluting our backyards. What would be OK is our government doing what it promised many years ago; introduce a Container Deposit Scheme and find ways of using tyres so they can be recycled.

Tasmania has become the laggard; it’s hard to imagine what tourists think when they see roadsides littered with rubbish and, sadly, roadkill. As most states now have container deposit programs, why can’t our legislators duplicate the best of these and get on with it?

Helen Gourley Mount Rumney