Comment: Kerbside collection is like Christmas coming early

It’s great that kerbside collection is back - but don’t leave anything outside while it’s on or it may be pilfered, writes Phil Brown.

Kerbside collectables in Stafford. Photographer: Liam Kidston

If you were visiting Brisbane during kerbside collection season you would think our city was an absolute dump. And for a while it is ... but I love it.

I’m lukewarm about getting the Olympics but very excited that kerbside collection is back. We just had ours and if there was a Brisbane City Council announcement about our suburb I missed it.

But when I saw people putting all their sh-t out the front of their houses I guessed something was up and I called council to confirm it and when they gave me the nod so we started collecting stuff to put outside. I love throwing stuff out but be warned ... don’t put anything out front unless you want it pilfered by the brigade of people who circulate endlessly before council does, picking the eyes out of everyone’s rejectables.

What a load of old rubbish ... kerbside collection is back and in full swing

I like to put stuff out and watch how long it takes someone to go through it all. It’s like when I was a boy trying to catch sparrows by putting breadcrumbs out and then hiding to watch if they came to peck at them.

I put an old CD player out last weekend and peered through the curtains to see if someone would bite. Nothing. Then I went to make a cup of tea and by the time I got back to the window it had gone. Success! Without even having to go to the dump.

You’ll recall that Brisbane City Council tried to cancel kerbside collections under cover of Covid but the community wouldn’t have it so it has been rolling out again since July.

It’s a community event really and everyone piles up the junk on the footpath and when you go for a walk you get a window into your neighbours lives by seeing what they are chucking out.

If you get tired walking you can always sit down and have a rest because there are plenty of couches out there!

Brisbane City Councillor Jonathan Sri questions whether kerbside collection promotes a wasteful society but Melanie Mons Wolff from Toowong says that 70 per cent of her house is furnished with kerbside collections. Picture: Patria Jannides

And as you walk you see the utes and cars with trailers go by laden with treasures ...our junk. We even had a couple of people on bicycles going down our street nabbing stuff and strapping things to the back of their bikes with octopus straps. Odd.

And when everyone is putting stuff out you wave across the street at them and have a bit of a chat. It’s quite communal is kerbside collection.

Sometimes you might even covet something they have put out but I’m afraid the shame of scavenging would be too much for me. I guess I could do it under cover of darkness.

But hey, I’m trying to get rid of stuff not collect it!

I did hear that somebody in our area had put a hose out the front to water and had gone inside and come back out to find it gone. Well frankly anything on the kerb during kerbside collection is fair game.

A colleague was telling me her husband was mowing the lawn during one kerbside collection and he went inside to get more fuel and when he came back out some people were trying to load his mower into their ute. Yikes!

Of course nowadays an unofficial form of kerbside collection occurs all year around because people drive around each weekend looking for stuff and if you want to get rid of something put it out on front on a Friday night and it will be gone by Monday.

Kerbside collection is fun and I’m so glad its back. Oh and I’m glad we got the Olympics too.