Editorial: A summer of street dumping

EDITORIAL: Some decades ago, authorities in New York City noticed a telling connection. In areas where broken windows were left unrepaired, citizens were more often faced with criminality.

The blight that is Sydney’s footpaths.

Some decades ago, authorities in New York City noticed a telling connection. In areas where broken windows were left unrepaired, citizens were more often faced with criminality.

According to what became known as “Broken Window Theory”, careless maintenance and run-down housing actually encourage civil disorder. Those busted windows are not just a consequence of criminality, but also a cause. After all, if nobody cares enough about their own neighbourhoods to keep things neat, why should others care about making such neighbourhoods even worse?

Sydney better hope that there is no such thing as Discarded Couch Theory, because if there is, we’re in for a big summer crime wave. Illegal street dumping, particularly of discarded furniture and other unwanted household items, is currently on the increase throughout our city — to such an excessive extent that the problem is now costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.

All told, the state government will spend an incredible $65 million tackling the street dumping issue over the next four years, including special grants to councils finding their streets and lanes swamped by refuse. Additionally, there is also a $9 million bill for special regional illegal dumping hit squads that try to catch street-soiling perpetrators.

A resident navigates a junk pile on Old South Head Rd, Bondi.

“Illegal dumping is wrong and can be a health risk or damage the environment,” NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton told The Daily Telegraph, after viewing images of old mattresses and full garbage bags simply left in the street.

“Councils are left to clean up the mess caused by someone breaking the law. People who can’t be bothered to dispose of their waste properly should face the full force of the law.”

Perpetrators may think that their street dumping is a victimless crime, but anyone who has ever walked past garbage bags containing food scraps and other organic matter on a hot day will know otherwise.

There is a very sound health reason for following correct garbage disposal protocols.

If garbage scofflaws won’t listen to reason or simply behave within acceptable limits, perhaps they will respond to financial imperatives. Last financial year, the Sydney Regional Dumping Squad issued 60 infringements to offenders, yielding a massive $93,500 in fines.

That would buy an awful lot of garbage bags.

ATM fee cut a small victory

It always seemed wrong that bank customers had to pay ATM fees just to access their own money.

And now all four of Australia’s big banks have recognised that wrong, agreeing to axe fees for customers of other banks.

This is a small victory in terms of day-by-day banking but a very significant win in terms of the overall amounts lost to consumers over months and years. Also, it will cut out that infernal extra-step delay required every time a customer clicks the fee yes/no option. Now let’s see even further competition between the banks. Lower costs mean more business.

Conflict escalation inevitable

North Korea’s estimated population size is very similar to our own. This is something to keep in mind when considering North Korean threats to erase the United States.

In terms of sheer human capacity, they have as much chance of destroying the US as would Australia.

If conventional armaments were all North Korea had, then the world would not be at all concerned about North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un’s increasingly wild threats. Such a small nation with such limited firepower would not have the capacity to cause any great damage, and would be swiftly dealt with if it tried.

A US Air Force F-15C Eagle takes off from the Kadena runway. Tensions are high between the US and North Korea.

As well, North Korea does not have the financial strength or international ideological support to run any kind of large-scale terrorism operations against the West. The place is economically isolated and has few admirers.

But what it does have is a proven capacity to build nuclear weapons, and a developing capacity to launch those weapons at nearby nations — and possibly, as matters continue, at nations considerably more distant than South Korea and Japan.

This is why statements at the UN from North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho deserve to be noted and potentially acted upon. Mr Ri told the UN General Assembly that US President Donald Trump had “committed an irreversible mistake of making our rockets’ visit to the entire US mainland inevitable”. The word “inevitable” hugely escalates this conflict. It may be a word North Korea comes to regret.