What's with the garbage dumping around here?

[limbery]

I'm a relative newcomer to Nanaimo....we moved here 2 years ago and love the small city atmosphere and all the beautiful parks and the harbour walkway, the quaint (and economically promising) downtown etc. but we're dismayed at the disrespect for all this beauty by those who dump truckloads of their old furniture, and garbage along side the roads and in the bushes....We've complained to the city regarding a lot of this along College Dr. and they did clean it up once, and also installed some concrete barriers to prevent vehicles from going into some trouble spots, however, now there is another growing pile just up the road and we've re-contacted council to ask for that area to also be blocked off by barriers or rocks etc. (The area in question is on Dept. of highways land so the city seems to be trying to pass the buck as it's not their jurisdiction)....I've also been in contact with the Dept. of Highways as well.
I just wish I could catch one of these dumpers in the act!
end of rant

[Nostradama]

. . . we're dismayed at the disrespect for all this beauty by those who dump truckloads of their old furniture, and garbage along side the roads and in the bushes....We've complained to the city regarding a lot of this along College Dr. and they did clean it up once, and also installed some concrete barriers to prevent vehicles from going into some trouble spots, however, now there is another growing pile just up the road . . . I just wish I could catch one of these dumpers in the act! end of rant

I apologize for deletions; I'm aiming at my personal experience. It's been going on for a long time. In the early seventies we moved to the isolated dead end of a road in East Wellington and midnight dumpers were a problem. The biggest item we ever had was an entire car, dumped and rolled onto its roof in a ditch across from our property. We were lucky: the brother of one of my husband's closest buddies had done it, not knowing we lived there. He got a call and the car was gone within twenty-four hours. But the problems continued, with our few neighbours doing the regular clean-ups we did. In later years, when I moved into condo and then apartment housing, I discovered the problem's still there. Things that are too big, or aren't allowed in city garbage, get put into condo and apartment building commercially-serviced dumpsters. Or in someone else's neighbourhood, as you've discovered. The largest I've ever seen in a dumpster was a full-size living room couch. Some of the regulations may be confusing to some people, so rather than face the "garbage Nazis" who hit from time to time, they take garbage and junk somewhere else and just "lose it". I kind of lost it when a friend, elderly and living alone with one cat, got reamed, and pretty nastily, by a city garbage Nazi because he'd slashed open her garbage bag and inside found another bag with kitty litter in it. She lived alone, she had no family to help her out, she didn't drive any more--what's she supposed to do with it? It's a simplistic answer; I don't have to worry about it myself anymore; I don't know the current city regulations about what you can dump and what you can't; but can't the city make it easier for people to do things the right way? I think the city needs to be a little more user-friendly and perhaps simplify the rules on what you can (and can't) put in the garbage. Even making the rules easier to understand might help in some cases, too. Even that's not going to completely solve the problem. Some people just flat-out don't care.

[riverrat]

Amen to all points - I agree that adjusting the rules for the good people won't help with the bad folks dumping. There is tons of stuff dumped along the railways tracks, too, especially between Hecate and Fifth St.

[MDavis]

One of the most disappointing sites I have seen thus far was right beside Steve Marshall Ford. There is a public access point to Diver's Lake. Someone backed up their truck in there and dumped a load of really awful trash, bedding, kitchen garbage, mattress etc.. It might still be there today.

[All Ages Music Concerts]

I was at Superstore this early morning and could not believe the garbage in the parking lot and in the carts. There are garbage cans so there is no excuse.

I also walk to work in the mornings and shake my head at the garbage that is discarded along the road side along with those little blue/yellow/green/etc poo bags thrown along the side walks.

So alot of our society seems to think that lazyness and having a brain that farts with no thought is ok.

We are our own worst enemy!!

[canadianbackpacker]

I've been touring all across the back roads lately, mc kay lake is horrible for dump sites, but I think the worse polluted place to check out is the bluffy area up passed the motor cross on biggs road, its littered with gun shot shells, trash and lots of plastic... so sad when your out in that beautiful area to see our trash just littered like no tomorrow mattered.
We've picked up lots of dumped trash and brought it to the dump where it belongs... but then we drive by the same place a couple weeks later and there's twice the amount of stuff.

[kittahmunhaPromotions]

i've thrown raves up at mckay lake.. it sucks to get there noon the day of a show and see all the litter that people dump.. we have to spend hours cleaning up other peoples household junk while i could spend that setting up and protecting sound gear. I have paid hundreds of dollars out of my own pocket taking other people's crap to the dump just to throw a rave.. then a couple weeks later another person will throw a rave up there and leave their trash! so irritating since im trying to prove that us ravers CAN clean and do it well, but some young punk teenager thinks its all about making money when there is no money in it at all. gaaah! I'm very fortunate that the guy that owns the campgrounds likes that our crew packs out what we pack in, and we even leave him empties (all bagged up and ready to be taken in) he can cash in. just disappointed in the people that wreck it for everyone else. it has been a year or so since i've thrown a rave, (or even gone out for that matter!) so i dont really know the state of the dumping up there. wish i had a free weekend, and a truck, to go up there and clean!