Chairman Dan

[facthunter]

IF there's NO garbage there's NO tax. call it what you will. It's a negative asset (Ie A Liability) if it has to go to landfill , that's a cost.  Nev

[red750]

Have it your own way. His farts smell like roses.

 

[facthunter]

Don't shoot ME.  I'm only the messenger. I'm bound to use the facts..  Nev

[rgmwa]

Bit hard on the charities when the donors are using them to dispose of their rubbish.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Agree with @rgmwa. It is taxcing the victom. Problem is people dump their stuff in garbags (or not these days) on a Sunday night., say at an op shop, and the charity can't sell it and can't keep it. They may need a more innovative solution; noe of which I can think of is a silver bullet. Increase state taxes to make the tips free to use and there would be a dry form those who have to pay it; and if the tips are free, it would further encourage waste. More hard rubbish collections, would cost more (more tax required again, and again more incentive to waste).

 

It has been about 15 years since I went to the Clayton tip in SE Melbourne. It was just throw and go. I hope things have improved and they recycle more (and therefore get some income or use). The local tip here requires us to separate our rubbish into various bins for recycling, and they also have a shop where they tidy up some of the things that are thrown out and sell them.

 

Also, some of the stuff charities couldn't/wouldn't sell was mind-boggling. Thankfully, when I was at the Clayton tip, someone who was also there saw good use for what I was letting go, and took it.

[old man emu]

I worked for Lifeline as a collection truck driver. At least a couple of times per week we had to take a load of unusable stuff to the tip AND PAY TO UNLOAD IT INTO LANDFILL. The fee to tip included GST, so if Dan wants to tax charities such as Lifeline who have to dump garbage that has been dumped on them, then it's double taxing - A politician's brain seems to be the only thing that is never overtaxed.

[red750]

In our municipality (City of Whitehorse), We have 3 bins. A small one with red lid for general landfill waste, but there is less and less that you are allowed to put in it. It is collected weekly. A larger one with green lid, for lawn clippings, hedge prunings, etc., and one with a yellow lid for recyclable - plastic, glass, paper etc. These two are collected on alternate weeks. We are shortly to get another larger bin with a purple lid. Then we will have to separate glass from  the yellow lid bin and put it in the new bin. Even kitchen scraps such as vege peelings, egg shells etc., now go in the green lid garden waste bin.

 

At our transfer station, you can take old appliances - toasters, kettles, irons, etc., free of charge. Old computer parts go in a separate area for collection to reclaim valuable metals. There are companies whole will collect white goods and other metal (mowers, BBQ's) and may even pay you. Charities will accept good unwanted clothes, but worn out stuff is a problem. Anything you take to the transfer station (trucked to landfill) and all vehicles must go over a weighbridge to get in, and pay the council. Dan's proposed tax for charities would be on top of that. Rate payers useed to get 3 free passes per year for a car/trailer load, but that was scrapped a few years ago.  You get two hard waste collections per year, maximum 3 cu mt each. Good for old couches, tables, chairs, etc.

[Bruce Tuncks]

When my mother died, we tried,firstly , to sell her stuff. Then we tried to give it away to charity shops. Lastly, we hired bins and that worked.

It's really hard to give stuff to charity shops.....   they are competing with Harvey Norman, who has new things and cashback and no repayments for a long time.

A charity shop wants money up front as you buy.

When Auntie Pat died, we had learned the score and this time we put stuff under her carport and told all the neighbors to take what they wanted. This worked.

 

[pmccarthy]

When my mum moved into a retirement home about fifteen years ago, I paid $7,000 to have the house cleared. All the furniture, a piano and so on. There was nothing of value. It took them a couple of days and a couple of truckloads. They chainsawed the piano to get it out.

[Jerry_Atrick]

When my father died, we couldn't sell most of the stuff he had, some of which was quite new such as toasters, microwave, etc. When I started off independent life, I scoured the trading post for that sort of stuff; times have changed. 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I dunno Jerry...  there was a sign up on the charity shop that they could not accept electrical goods. I was told that these goods needed paperwork from a registered electrician, and this made them too expensive.

[Bruce Tuncks]

That's a good example of how a law designed to help those who would have been ripped off can actually hurt the intended beneficiaries.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes, the Op Shops were having none of what he had left behind.

[old man emu]

45 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

I dunno Jerry...  there was a sign up on the charity shop that they could not accept electrical goods. I was told that these goods needed paperwork from a registered electrician, and this made them too expensive.

Yes. Second hand electrical items must be tested and tagged by a qualified person using  certified testing equipment. A new item from a retailer is assumed to have been tested OK

 

I have the equipment but it is out of certification. Years ago it was bout $160 to get it certified, so who knows now. The certification only lasts 12 months. So charities have difficulty finding  qualified volunteers with their own equipment to to the testing and tagging.

 

Also items like TVs often hold a display fault like a dead pixel or two which is why the owner wanted rid of them. Computers and the like have short technological lives. Although I'd like to get hold of a VGA monitor for an old Windows 7 computer that can control my CNC machine.

[onetrack]

A mate and I just cleaned out the garage of a bloke (Terry) who died just before Christmas. Terry was a previous partner of the wife (Chris) of one of our friends. Chris had retained a half-ownership of the property, and Terry had lived in the house for 16 years.

Terry and Chris had stayed on good terms, despite being divorced. Chris just wanted the garage cleared out, as the house had been sold, and the settlement was in mid-May. Chris and her current partner wanted nothing for anything in the garage.

The double car garage was essentially chock-full of stuff, he must have parked his cars outside (as many people do!). The real estate agent didn't even show the garage interior!

 

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-the+vines-141882132

 

I loaded up my traytop Hilux and big tandem trailer, and my mate filled his Falcon ute to overflowing during the cleanout. Terry had been a car tinkerer, he'd left a hot Escort in good shape, and piles of tools and parts and manuals.

There was a camping genset, near-new power tools still in boxes, dozens and dozens of Fischer Stor-pak containers, new car parts galore, irrigation and piping components, piles of racking - even a pile of fishing equipment.

Neither of us fished, so the fishing equipment (including a new reel) got placed on the kerb. I sorted some of the stuff out of the Hilux yesterday, there's a genuine ZD Fairlane service manual there, that's worth $200 alone.

 

Chris and her partner were just glad to get rid of the items, they only saw them as a troublesome burden to get rid of. Some of the items I picked up will go to an auction house, as I have no need for them.

 

Another mate told me a story of a bloke he knew who died recently and left a big hydraulics engineering workshop. The shed was full of hydraulic parts and tooling, lathes, milling machine and tools galore.

It was all sold in one lot by the people looking after the estate, for $4000. Someone got a real bargain, lathes and milling machines alone bring big money today.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by onetrack

[Marty_d]

There must be an exemption for tip shops, they sell all sorts of untagged electrical items with an "as is where is" caveat.

[Bruce Tuncks]

That would solve the problem Marty. If charity shops could sell electrical stuff on the same ( as is where is ) basis, the problem would go away.

I wonder who is the beneficiary of this insane rule?

 

[facthunter]

People who do the checking of appliances and mains Power tools. Your earth return sensing Circuit Breaker does it for you. They are super sensitive.  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

I wonder who is the beneficiary of this insane rule?

It's one of the things you do to keep the wolves from the door. In this case they are wolves in Barristers' wigs. 

[pmccarthy]

When my mate died a few years back I sold his C172 for his widow for $35k. Only 3000 hrs and SIDS all done, but that was all it was worth then. Today it would be worth +$100k. You just can't know.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I cannot understand why the prices for used GA aircraft have recently gone through the roof.. Asking about 50% more than pre pandemic.. and they are getting it!

 

[Old Koreelah]

Depressing reading. My shed is full of treasures, part-finished projects and “stuff that might come in handy one day”.

My kid assures me that when I fall off the twig, she’ll give it the BryMay Bulldozer treatment…

[facthunter]

Plan and get rid of it first. Less to worry about and some one might do some good with it. Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

You are right again Nev. I'm starting to try and get rid of too much stuff here too.  There comes a time where you have to say that you only see yourself as being capable of doing projects for another ( say ) 3 years and so anything past that needs to be got rid of.

[facthunter]

 Alladins cave starts to look like hard work eh!. I've got a place I call the inner sanctum. It could be for wine storage, but nothing rusts there.  Nev