Pleas for more help as rubbish piles up along Channel Island Rd
REVOLTING images of rubbish piling up along a road south of Darwin have brought new focus onto the impact of illegal dumping. SEE THE PICTURES
Northern Territory
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REVOLTING images of rubbish piled up along a Territory thoroughfare portray the environmental impact of reckless illegal dumping, with one resident revealing losing battle against the mountains of trash.
Pictures show plastic bags filled with rubbish, refrigerators, mangled bikes, used tyres, boxes and even burnt out cars piled up.
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The mess is located along Channel Island Road, just 200m after the Elizabeth River Bridge, according to Palmerston resident Kelly Wood.
Mr Wood, who uses his trailer to clean up the mess regularly, claimed the rate of dumping was escalating.
“There was always very old building rubble there, from what I could gather, for even five to 10 years,” he said.
“But the household rubbish, as you can see from some of those photos, is very fresh.”
“It does make me a bit sick in the stomach.”
Mr Wood said people would back their trailers up in the area and dump mounds of rubbish.
“I’ve seen people coming and going,” he said.
“These plastic bags and household rubbish that’s just getting blown and scattered everywhere – once the animals start having a bit of a chew on them and it gets inside them – they’re buggered basically.”
The NT Environment Protection Agency, which has responsibility for illegal dumping on crown land, said it was aware of waste being left in the vicinity.
“Officers are aware that this area has a network of openly and easily accessible bush tracks, where waste dumping occurs,” an EPA spokeswoman said.
“Whilst the removal of the waste by members of the public is with good intentions, it is not advised due to the risks the waste poses particularly with unknown potential hazardous waste being present, such as asbestos.”
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The spokeswoman urged any illegal dumping to be reported to the NT EPA Pollution Hotline.
“Officers are currently conducting surveillance of a number of waste dumping locations; and will seek to publicise enforcement actions that may system from the surveillance activities,” she said.
Originally published as Pleas for more help as rubbish piles up along Channel Island Rd