Rubbish warrior’s crusade

Dave Dudley cleans up trash on the side of the Bruce Highway. Picture: ALIX SWEENEY

BOTTLES, tyres, office chairs and even dirty nappies are strewn across bushland off the Bruce Highway at Black River.

For illegal dumping crusader Dave Dudley, it’s a mess he can’t abide by.

By day Mr Dudley is a nurse, but he spends most of his spare time cleaning up after illegal dumpers at places like Black River, and now he’s asking for help.

Almost $50,000 worth of fines for dumping rubbish were handed out in the 12 months to the end of August.

Mr Dudley has urged people to take part in his new initiative, Bag it on Bin Day.

He said if less than half of Townsville’s population took to the streets on bin collection day and filled the bins with rubbish left by illegal dumpers, the city would be better for it.

“If you did that on bin day, just one bag, one a week (it would make a difference),” Mr Dudley said.

He said the roadside stop at Black River, near Brabon Road, was a prime example of what happened when people didn’t secure their loads properly or just tossed rubbish from cars.

Mayor Jenny Hill said Townsville needed to take some pride in the city and work together to put litter where belongs – in the bin.

“If every resident took personal responsibility for their rubbish and disposed of it properly, Dave wouldn’t need to organise community events to clean up litter and illegally dumped waste,” she said.

Cr Hill said using one of the council’s five waste transfer stations would save residents a $2135 fine.

“While there is a small cost to use these transfer stations, it is a lot less than the fine for littering or illegally dumping rubbish,” she said.

“There is no cost to dump green waste and recyclables at the transfer stations.

“Sadly, there are some grubs out there who think it’s acceptable to litter and illegally dump rubbish. Where it can, council takes action against these individuals through the issuing of fines or making them clean up their mess.”

Mr Dudley said his group Townsville Illegal Dumping Yobo’s Clean Ups (TIDY) did monthly clean-ups at Saunders Beach and the Port Access area.

“I probably spend about 20-30 hours a week on TIDY,” he said. “I have yet to find a bag of dollars but the value is in trying to do something good for us and the critters – that’s the real reward.” it