The bin inspection program began in 2017 and has recently been expanded. Photo: ACT Government.
When Braddon resident and Region colleague David Murtagh wheeled his green recycling bin back up the driveway on Friday, he expected it to be empty. Instead, it still contained a tree clipping – and a bright tag roped to the lid.
“Your garden organics bin was inspected,” the note read. A little red frown face was ticked, alongside the words: “Minor levels of contamination observed.”
The culprit? A plastic bag of dog dirt, tossed in by a passerby.
For David, it means another fortnight’s wait until the bin can be emptied. For the ACT Government, it’s exactly why the city’s bin inspection program exists.
The program began in 2017 with green organics bins and expanded to include yellow-lidded recycling bins in May of this year.
Each week, approximately 600 bins across the city are selected at random and inspected by waste educators from the ACT Government or its contractor, Envirocom Australia.
The inspectors don’t exactly rummage through bins – they only check what’s visible on the top – but they’re looking for problem items that might go on to contaminate the ACT’s waste systems. Residents receive a tag with either the green smiley face or red frown face ticked.
“Bagged animal waste” is enough to prevent a green bin from being emptied. Photo: David Murtagh.
“You will not be fined or penalised for placing incorrect items in your bin,” the ACT Government says.
“Your household bins will still be collected as normal unless hazardous material is discovered.”
Canberra’s rubbish trucks are also fitted with CCTV cameras. If drivers spot dangerous or large-scale contamination, they can tag a bin or even refuse to empty it.
The aim, the government says, is simple: less contamination, more waste ending up where it belongs, and fewer fires like the one that destroyed Hume’s recycling depot in 2022 (traced to batteries).
Couldn’t the dog walker have just put it in the red bin? Photo: David Murtagh.
Waste audits suggest Canberrans are already doing better than they used to.
According to the 2022 survey, the average household generated 10.3 kilograms of rubbish per week, down from 14.2 kilograms in 2014. General waste was 7.7 kg, while recycling accounted for 2.6 kg. Food scraps, nappies, animal waste, textiles, and contaminated paper remain among the most common items found in household bins.
“Contamination rates in the green waste and FOGO streams are very low and bin inspections are one of several education tools being used to maintain this,” a government spokesperson told Region.
“Overall, most households (86 per cent) have little to no contamination in their recycling bin.”
If you think a bag of dog poo is bad, spare a thought for landfill workers.
Some nasties have turned up in the Mugga Lane landfill over the years. Photo: ACT City Services.
Charlie Bigg-Wither and his wife, Sandie Parkes, who used to scale Canberra’s tip faces in search of treasure in the early days of The Green Shed, have seen it all over the years.
Charlie remembers the day a body was uncovered at the old West Belconnen tip in 1992. At first, a colleague thought it was a mask and “tried to pick it up”, he told News.com.au.
The remains were identified as those of Chinese student Zhou Zhong, who had been murdered. The case remains unsolved.
Then there are the stranger discoveries: US cash, jewellery, guns, rocket launchers, propeller blades, cremated human ashes, and even live WWII grenades from Germany.
“We had to call a bomb squad to take them away,” Charlie said.
Sandie recalled finding a jar marked ‘Human Heart’, seemingly from a science lab.
“It just looked like a jar from a lab or something,” she said.
It seems government inspectors aren’t the only ones authorised to peek inside your bins. Once a bin is wheeled to the kerb in the ACT, it technically becomes government property, but as long as you don’t make a mess, members of the public are at liberty to rifle through it.
“Rummaging through household bins may lead to unwanted mess … this would be considered littering, which is an offence under the Litter Act 2004,” is all the government says.
However, you may not want to try it in Ballarat, in Victoria, where rummaging through a kerbside bin could cost you $1000, while in Warrnambool, the fine can be $500.
Whatever you do, don’t put your dog turds in the green bin.
Visit the ACT Government website for the full list of hazardous waste items and how to dispose of them properly.
