Controversial $2.5K bin fines find defenders sick of smelly wheelies

Queensland councils enraged plenty of homeowners with the news that residents could be fined more than $2,500 for leaving their wheelie bins out for longer than is “reasonably appropriate”. 

But plenty of rate-payers also appear to support the rules, saying they’ll be happy to see “lazy” neighbours prevented from leaving dirty, smelling bins on the footpath for weeks at a time.

It emerged this week that more than 20 Queensland council would start to enforce laws that would set fines of more than $2,500 for people who left their bins outside their property for an unreasonably lengthy period before or after rubbish collection. The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) told the Courier Mail that councils were forced to act because the state government hadn’t replaced its own laws, due to expire in January, that govern the issue.

“What that means is about 20 councils have gone ahead and made their own local law which reflects the intent of that legislation that’s about to expire,” the LGAQ told the newspaper. In other words, the state government laws permitted the fines but councils hadn’t acted on them, but now that councils have been forced to making their own laws, they will act on enforcing them. And although the state laws didn’t specify what was a reasonable time period in which to bring in a bin, the councils have decreed that 24 hours will be the maximum allowable period from July 1.

Some furious homeowners picked holes in the rules. Chief among the complaints was that the level of the fine was far too high and thus a “money grab”, that councils frequently did not fulfil their own responsibilities in mowing nature strips, removing dumped debris and collecting bins regularly, that elderly people could have difficulty pulling heavy bins to and from their property, and that the fine was disproportionately high compared to those handed out to traffic offenders.

But while anger over the laws dominated commenting on social media, others reckoned the complainers should stop complaining. Amid the fierce comments on the Courier Mail’s Facebook post of the bin-fine story, there was a noticeable number of people who supported the rules, within reason.

Jean Sandall pointed out that there was nothing too difficult for most people in putting out and bringing in a bin or two once a week. “What’s so hard about bringing the bin in once it’s been emptied?” she wrote on Facebook. “It’s ridiculous that we have to have these rules and fines, it’s commonsense people,stop being lazy.”

“Tho the fine is way too steep, I agree, nothing worse then the ugly sight and smelly bins being left on footpaths, week after week, especially in front of apartments … don’t be so lazy,” Debby Lea Hardinge agreed, while Sammy Baldwin said, “Good, looks horrible driving up a street with bins out all over the place”. 

Michelle Morrison had some straight-talking for the complainers. “You mow the footpath because it is attached to your property and you bring the bins in and out of your property because they are your bins while you live at that property…. all you twits that have an issue with this fine, just stop whinging,” she commented. 

Jacky Heyne agreed. “Leaving your bin out means you have to walk further each day to take rubbish out,” she pointed out. “Either that or they are grubs that let it pile up.”

Tony Henderson-Clark, meanwhile, questioned why residents could not just be more neighbourly by bringing in their neighbours’ bins if they were away, and asking their neighbours to do the same for them.

What do you think about the fines? Are you happy to see bins brought in quickly or does the size of the fine seem unfair to you?