“When I drive past things, I think, ‘There was a tyre dump there’,” Mr Robertson mutters, his hands on the steering wheel and his sunglasses reflecting their own image in the rear-vision mirror.

Not that Rob Robertson looks back often. His focus is directed forward and around, looking for what most of us don’t notice or ignore. He seeks what people discard. Then he searches for those who discarded it.

Rob Roberston is the coordinator of the Hunter-Central Coast Regional Illegal Dumping Squad.

The RID project has been in existence in NSW for about 15 years, but the Hunter squad was formed only in 2014, with funding from the state’s Environment Protection Authority and nine councils in the region. The squad’s formation didn’t mean there was a sudden rise in illegal dumping in the Hunter.

“It’s a consistent problem right around the nation,” says Mr Robertson. “It’s just been previously ignored or a ‘kept under the blanket’ offence, it didn’t get much attention. But now it’s being dragged out into the open.”

The squad is also becoming more visible. RID warning signs are on the roadside, with the acronym slightly reworked - Report Illegal Dumping. The squad has also had a number of high-profile cases. In October, investigators used a 35-year-old birthday card picked out of asbestos-contaminated waste from a house demolition job at Charlestown to track down those responsible. And on Thursday the squad was highly commended at the Local Government Environment Excellence Awards in Sydney. 

The case figures also indicate the squad is having an effect. In 2016, it received 1241 reports of illegal dumping, the waste material involved was almost 20,000 tonnes, and about $250,000 in fines were issued in the region.  

“It is making an inroad,” says Michael Alexander, the Chairman of the Management Committee for the Hunter-Central Coast RID Squad and Manager of Environment and Waste at Cessnock City Council. “The RID Squad has dedicated officers, and prior to that it was just another function of the local government rangers.”

Mr Alexander says the the Hunter squad operates on an annual budget of less than a million dollars, and while it could do with more funding, “that’s a long way in front of nothing”.

Rob Robertson and five other officers in the Hunter-Central Coast RID Squad canvas a large area, from Hawkesbury River to Murrurundi, inspecting dumping hot-spots and following leads.

“Illegal dumping is an offence that is almost impossible to happen accidentally,” Mr Robertson says. “They have to plan for it, they have to drive somewhere to drop it, and they know it’s wrong.”

We turn off Wangi Road at Buttaba Hills and pick our way down a rutted track. Its fringes are strewn with rubbish.

“All we have seen so far is domestic,” he murmurs. He stops the four-wheel-drive to inspect rubbish just off the track. The former police detective scans the scene for a moment then begins inspecting the rubbish, carefully separating documents and reading them. He learns it wasn’t rubbish once. It was part of a girl’s life. Felicity’s life. School books and reports, birthday cards to Felicity, shoes, a stuffed toy. More than names, there are other details that identify who this all belonged to.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the dumper,” Mr Robertson cautions. “Sometimes we find a situation where they’ve engaged a third party in good faith and paid money for that third party to take the rubbish to the tip. But it hasn’t ended up working out that way, and it appears in our bushland.” Even so, Felicity’s family can expect a visit from investigators, as answers are sought.  

Rob Robertson estimates about 50 per cent of the illegally dumped waste comes from homes and backyard sheds. With domestic dumpers, he says, the consistent reason is laziness. At least 90 per cent dump their waste within five kilometres of their home. I ask if council tip fees are too high.

“That’s an excuse I just don’t accept,” Robertson counters, and it is an excuse he hears often when he knocks on someone’s door. “It’s an easy answer, tip fees, but it doesn’t hold water.” He points out councils have regular kerbside pick-ups, and that larger items are often accepted at tips for free. “When you buy something, you’re responsible for the whole life cycle of it,” he says. “You have to get rid of it lawfully.”   

The squad follows up tip-offs from the public. As we drive through Awaba, Mr Robertson turns on to a dirt road. He received a phone call about a concrete truck washing out its mixer in a creek down here. Robertson finds concrete along the watercourse. 

“I’ll set some surveillance up and see if we can identify someone,” he says, explaining the squad often installs hidden cameras in dumping spots.

The squad has to deal with some large cases of illegal dumping by commercial operators. The motivation for commercial dumping, Rob Robertson says, is “100 per cent financial”, as operators try to save or make money.

On a road just off a roundabout in the Hunter Economic Zone near Kurri Kurri, there is a huge mound of waste, about 40 tonnes of it, which was dumped on the night of February 20.

Rob Robertson meets up with one of his investigators, Shane Bowker. They examine the waste, which Mr Robertson says is processed material from some sort of recycling centre. Wearing a mask and gloves, Shane Bowker picks up a piece that looks like asbestos.

“We took half a dozen samples because it looks like asbestos, but it’s not,” Mr Robertson explains.

In the eyes of Rob Robertson and Shane Bowker, there is evidence in this compressed pile of waste, as they tease out pieces that could set up a trail back to who was responsible.

“What we’ll be looking for in this material are documents that will probably take us back to different building and demolition sites, either around Newcastle or in Sydney,” Mr Robertson says. “What we’ll be doing is following the trail of those documents into the skip bin at those sites and finding out where those skip bins went for consolidation before all that material was then loaded onto a truck, the remains of which we see here.”

Rob Roberston and his squad don’t just fossick for needles in large and tangled haystacks. They employ science. In one case before the courts, the team had worked with forensic scientists, comparing paint samples taken from a demolition site in East Maitland to materials in a 3.7-tonne alleged illegal dump, including asbestos, at Freemans Waterhole.

“The RID officers have an investigating background and skill set,” says Michael Alexander. “This is not just looking for an envelope.”

As well as patrolling on the ground, from bushland to new housing estates, the squad uses aerial surveillance and is about to introduce drones. While the investigators enforce the law, they’re also involved in public education, changing long-held views about dumping waste. 

“A common misconception is that people think if they own land, they can bring things on to it, but they can’t, it’s polluting the land,” Mr Robertson says.

Shane Bowker is based in Singleton and Muswellbrook, and he spends a lot of time talking with farmers. That has helped lead to the clean-up of historical dumps on properties.

“You are dealing with a lot of farms, it can be generational,” says Mr Bowker, who used to be a council ranger on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “Since we’ve been up in Singleton and Muswellbrook, they’re aware we’re around, we talk to them, including about what they can’t do.”

Driving back along the Hunter Expressway, past the tide of rubbish tossed from vehicle windows, Rob Robertson says illegal dumping affects many.

“People are seeing it as having a significant effect on not just the environment but on landholders, and it affects them as ratepayers,” says Mr Robertson.

“They have to pay for it. So it’s not victimless. Society and the environment are the victims, and society is pushing together and saying it’s not acceptable on any level.”