Residents hit out at council for ever-growing pile of rubbish in ritzy suburb

Locals in an affluent suburb are battling it out with the council over an enormous pile of hard rubbish, which they say has been growing for almost six years.

Residents in an affluent Sydney suburb are battling the council over a huge pile of rubbish now named ‘The Pile’ that they claim has been there for almost six years.

Containing everything from whitegoods and mattresses to discarded clothes and jewellery, residents of Chiswick – where the median house price is $4m – say the Pile has only intensified in recent years and that the council is yet to take action.

The pile of rubbish continued to grow for years, residents claim. Picture: Domain

Locals said the mound of hard rubbish was a hazard to the community. Picture: Domain

Resident Elle Morgan-Thomas, who lives a mere 150m from the giant heap of furniture, mattresses, pillows and other junk, told Domain The Pile was packed with items that are “practically good as new”, including “perfectly usable second-hand appliances, whitegoods, home furnishings, decor, books, clothes, shoes and jewellery”.

Despite being packed with valuable items, residents are claiming the Pile is getting bigger and becoming a hazard to the community.

“Aside from the fact it is unsightly, it’s also legitimately hazardous – it blocks footpaths and hinders disability and pram access, there is broken glass everywhere,” she told the outlet.

The Pile began growing during the pandemic as residents began clearing their homes, and has only become bigger, especially during warmer months, which causes problems of its own.

“The flies get out of control, especially in warm weather and the grass and gardens get damaged by the volume of junk and how long it sits here,” Ms Morgan-Thomas said.

The City of Canada Bay confirmed it had removed the Pile. Picture: Domain

Alongside neighbour Kathryn Rutkowski, the pair sometimes go through The Pile and “actively (promote) reusable stuff through a Facebook group called Inner West Street Bounty”.

She said she moves at least two tonnes of goods from the area every six months.

A spokesman for the City of Canada Bay told NewsWire they had “removed all kerbside rubbish from that location in Chiswick”.

The council confirmed they were “currently investigating the potential occurrence of illegal dumping at the site, which coincided with the scheduled bulk household collection for this zone”.

Some of the items in the pile are “perfectly usable” and have been redistributed by community groups. Picture: Instagram

The council has also doubled its number of bulk-rubbish collections for those living in apartments. Picture: Domain

According to the spokesman, the council “doubled” its bulk household collections for residents living in side apartments, giving them access to hard rubbish four times a year, rather than two.

“With our first collection under this new model now underway, we expect kerbside materials to decrease over time as collection frequency increases,” they told NewsWire.

Despite increasing the number bulk-rubbish collections per year, Ms Morgan-Thomas argued it wouldn’t solve the problem, and would instead encourage “people to throw stuff out more often” rather than reconsider their consumption levels.

“I think they thought increasing frequency would help, but then they scheduled all the apartments in our local area for the same weekend and probably didn’t realise that has completely undermined the frequency change, covering our entire suburb in even more piles,” she told Domain.

Originally published as Residents hit out at council for ever-growing pile of rubbish in ritzy suburb