Gold Coast bin raiders: Is dumpster diving illegal?: Your trash rights explained

‘Bin raiders’ may have sparked anger from some Gold Coast residents, but they have found support from some Bulletin readers. HAVE YOUR SAY

‘BIN raiders’ may have sparked anger from some Gold Coast residents, but they have found support from some Bulletin readers.

“Support a family that’s doing it tough in your street and give your 10cent cans to them,” Dave wrote.

“The kids would also love the extra pocket money and so would the mums and dads.”

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HOW THE STORY STARTED

THEY say one man’s trash is another’s treasure, but according to Gold Coast legal heavyweight Bill Potts that might not always be the case.

Residents in Southport have shared their frustration over strangers digging through their garbage in the dead of the night, and according to Mr Potts it might not be the legal thing to do.

“Property is something that a person owns or has possession of, that can be anything from your car through to a bottle top you have chucked in your bin – it is still your property,” Mr Potts said.

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Former Queensland Law Society president and Criminal Lawyer Bill Potts. Picture AAPImage/ David Clark

“The real question is whether the property has been abandoned or it has an owner.”

Under the criminal code in Queensland an individual can only take ownership of an abandoned item if the owner is unknown and believes, on reasonable grounds, that the owner cannot be discovered.

“That means if your car is parked on the side of the road with the keys in it, it doesn’t mean it is abandoned. But if I find ten cents on the beach, it is still property but there is probably no reasonable way find the owner.

“Appropriate search for the owner may mean taking it to the police station, and it is clear none of this is being considered in the situation of dumpster divers.

“The property despite being on the side of the road remains yours, until it is picked up on the kerbside. We know anything in the local tip belongs to council – this isn’t any different.”

Mr Potts said property owners had an expectation of privacy when it comes to their rubbish.

“There have been cases where members of the Murdoch media in the UK have been prosecuted for going through the bins belonging to stars to look for prescriptions and the like,” he said.

“Even though it is garbage it can reveal all sorts of personal things, such as a prescriptions, or purchase history, this could be considered trespassing and stealing – and quite frankly it is bad taste.”

According to Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler police have their hands full with other crime.

“Firstly, homelessness is a really complex issue and it’s a whole of government, whole of community issue, and I know there’s a lot of work being done there,” he said.

“In terms of people rummaging through rubbish bins, to be honest, I wouldn’t be spending too much time on it from a policing perspective.

“If people are behaving in an inappropriate manner, or are creating a public nuisance, that becomes a police matter.

“But if people are rummaging through a rubbish bin for an aluminium tin, to be honest, I think police have got better things to do.”

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Gold Coast residents say their rubbish is regularly unloaded and rummaged through.

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EARLIER:

BREAKING bottles and tipping bins have become a familiar sound in the dead of night for some Gold Coasters – and frustrated locals have had enough.

Southport families say bin divers have become a regular occurrence in their once quiet streets, tipping over full bins in search of 10c refundable bottles.

While locals say they don’t mind the rubbish being collected, the mess left behind and the constant noise by the rummaging has to stop.

Gold Coast father Grant Stephens said his children were regularly woken from their slumber by the unwelcome visitors, who he cannot get to move from the front of his property.

“It happens between midnight and five in the morning, you would think a garbage truck was there with the sound of bottles and cans,” Mr Stephens said.

“People rock up and go through our rubbish, tipping it out onto the street, digging through it and then moving onto the next one.

“The noise keeps going and going, it’s very painful for the kids who are at uni trying to sleep before they have an exam or need to study, it is always so late.”

Mr Stephens said once the rubbish was sorted, most was generally returned to the bin but a mess still remained.

“There is usually some left over on your lawn, because it is done in the dark,” he said.

“I also find it to be an invasion for privacy – they aren’t just going through our recycle bins it is our general waste as well.

“I ask them to stop, but I don’t get a response. They ignore you and keep going.”

Frustrated about the situation the family has approached both police and the council on the matter, however given the rubbish is no longer on his property there is little that can be done.

Southport residents say they are sick of people going through their rubbish.

Mr Stephens also shared his frustration about the situation online only to be hit by criticism.

“I don’t know what to do, I understand it might be how that person makes a living, but I also have to make a living and don’t do it in the middle of the night to wake everyone up.

“Tradies have rules around when they can work because of noise, I don’t see how this is any different.”

A spokesman for Gold Coast City Council said they were limited in what they could do.

“The City occasionally receives complaints of this nature however trespassing is a matter for QPS.”

Previously Queensland Police have described the issue as a legal grey area.

While an individual may be charged for going onto someone’s lawn/property, with public nuisance or trespass (in extreme circumstances), items left on the street for pick-up are not necessarily considered private property.

Proving that possession of a discarded item is theft could also prove difficult.