SYRINGES. Asbestos. Concrete. Furniture. Car tyres.
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When it comes to illegal dump sites in Lake Macquarie bushland, Ross Goninan and his staff at Goninan and Sons have seen it all.
Take the recent clean-up job the Warnervale-based company completed in bushland off Hawke Mount Road, near Awaba Public School.
“Over a two-week period we removed something in the vicinity of 80 tonnes of rubbish from this site,” Mr Goninan said.
“The rubbish content was brick and concrete, asbestos, and everything from tyres and lounge chairs to washing machines to general household rubbish.”
It was a big job, especially considering that the company’s method is to meticulously sort and remove items by hand, not simply scoop up all of the offending material using heavy machinery.
“That’s so that we can have minimal impact on the environment,” he said.
This section of Hawke Mount Road is on Crown Land, and because it is secluded and easily accessible by vehicle, it has become a happy dumping site.
Mr Goninan said people doing the illegal dumping seemed able to easily rationalise their decision.
“People just say, ‘There’s a dirt road, let’s go up there’. And when they see a pile of rubbish they say ‘OK, let’s put another pile beside it’,” he said.
“People are just plain lazy.”
Some are worse: they are reckless.
The dumping of asbestos, for example, puts people at risk.
As soon as asbestos was located at the Awaba dump site, Mr Goninan’s licensed staff suited up and removed the product safely.
It’s not the only hazardous material that clean-up crews encounter.
“We recently cleaned a site on Old Maitland Road, near Cessnock, and the amount of syringes there was insane,” Mr Goninan said.
Awaba locals were delighted to discover the growing rubbish pile on Hawke Munt Road had been safely removed.
Resident David Mowczan said the area was frequented by kids on their bicycles, bushwalkers, and people walking their dogs.
He said it was especially concerning to learn that there had been asbestos in the rubbish. He was relieved to see it had been professionally removed.
“It’s great to be able to walk up there, and use this area now with my family without the rubbish, especially the asbestos,” he said.
“Ross and his team have been very friendly and efficient in their work. I think it is great to acknowledge a good job.”
Mr Goninan said the problem of illegal dumping was widespread in the Westlakes area.
The length of Hawke Mount Road, which extends through to Newport Road, at Dora Creek, was one of the hot spots. The area around Morisset Hospital was another, he said.
While the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Illegal Dumping (RID) Squad was doing its best to identify offenders – including through the use of hidden cameras in dumping hot spots – the problem was complex, and attitudes were difficult to change, Mr Goninan said.
Tip fees were a major deterrent to the responsible disposal of rubbish, he said.
“I’ve been a builder for many years. People just say ‘I’m not paying that. I’ll just dump it [illegally]’, he said of the tip fees.
Seeing so much potentially recyclable material dumped illegally in the bush irks Mr Goninan more than most. That’s because a large part of his business is the salvaging and reselling of recycled building materials.
His depot, located next to Central Coast Airport, stocks about 400,000 roof tiles, rows of doors and windows, and hardwoods salvaged from homes – many of which his company dismantled.
His company dismantled the old Morisset police station.
“We resold about 75 per cent of the roof tiles from the police station, as well as the fascia and guttering, windows, most of the brick work, flooring, bearers and joists, doors, carpets and even the sinks and cupboards,” he said.
“So much of what’s now going in the ground could be recycled,” he said.