It must be hard for some to understand how special it is to live within arm's reach of the natural, austere beauty of our State Forests if they've never known the misery of being landlocked by industry and traffic congestion in a big city.
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I say it must be hard, because within thirty minutes of driving through the Nambucca State Forest, I find enough illegally dumped items to fill a semi.
Soggy cardboard boxes, mattresses, rotting sofas, husks of burnt-out cars, beer bottles, concrete odds and ends, clothing, toys, carpet, eskys, corrugated iron sheeting - all rise out of the tangle of native grasses like a dystopian end-of-world movie set.
For ten years now, one warrior of the forest has been collecting and removing rubbish from the very same area.
That person - who prefers to keep their anonymity - said while they've become accustomed (perhaps resigned) to the extent people trash our local environments, they'll never understand why someone would go to the effort of driving kilometres into a forest to throw something away which could be hoiked into the yellow bin, or even donated to a charity store.
And before you go mentally scapegoating junkies, kids, 'derros' or other recalcitrants, our anonymous warrior said they'd often found items which complete the profile of a middle-class family with young children.
"It is clear that the dumping is done by responsible parents and not their children, because often it includes kids' toys. They don't seem to realise that their irresponsible actions harm the world their own children will inherit," they said.
They did say that the Return and Earn scheme and plastic bag ban has worked wonders in reducing the number and impact of those items in the natural landscape, but that the broad extent of illegal dumping isn't abating.
At times I've pulled out enough to fill a ten-tonne truck.
They said the argument some make that tip fees are too high doesn't always stack up.
"I find it odd because tv sets, washing machines - they can all be left at the tip for nothing," they said.
Books can be recycled, gas bottles returned, and there are always people after rubble for fill on our local Buy, Swap, Sell groups.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said household waste makes up 47 per cent of the total waste dumped illegally around the state.
Earlier this year our warrior met up with an enterprising chap who forages for scrap metal.
Together they salvaged 12 vehicles from the Nambucca State Forest - many which had been there for years.
But they were disappointed to find that in just a few short months, newly abandoned and torched vehicles were taking their place.
What makes matters worse, is that when it comes to who's responsible for dealing with the illegal dump sites, there seems to be a lot of hand-wringing and buck-passing.
Our warrior said they have a good working relationship with the Council and often use a trolley to drag large piles of rubbish from the forest to leave on roadsides which Council workers then promptly pick up.
But there are often quite heavy or dangerous items which a trolley isn't suited to.
I'm not entirely motivated to send our work crews out to pick stuff up from State Forests when we're not the responsible land owner - Forestry Corp are.
- Council general manager Michael Coulter
Mr Coulter did say though that on the occasion when a complaint is made to the relevant state authority about an illegal dumpsite and nothing is done about it Council does often send a team in to collect.
"And then to top it off, we have to pay a levy when we take stuff to the tip - we get whacked twice," he said.
"We spent around $25,000 cleaning up unauthorised dumped material during the last bulky goods collection."
The EPA have an app with which you can report illegal dumping in State Forests.
Our forest warrior said they often make use of this feature and that a confirmation of the receipt of the report is always given, but little action is ever taken.
They said they often walk past the same rubbish months or years later.
They've even made an appeal in person to Forestry Corporation in Coffs Harbour. While that created a few waves - nothing was lasting.
The EPA had this to say when we queried them:
In general, the public land owner is responsible for cleaning up dumped waste on their land if the person who dumped the waste cannot be identified.
- EPA spokesperson
"The NSW Government is committed to reducing illegal dumping. Through the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, funding has been committed to combat illegal dumping across NSW.
"Under the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, the EPA has provided $7.97 million to support local government, public land managers, charitable recyclers and Local Aboriginal Land Councils to implement 148 projects to clean up, combat and prevent illegal dumping.
"Whilst some hot spot areas have been successfully targeted to combat illegal dumping, there is still more work to be done in other areas."
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Mel Leigh Dee
Mel is a journalist at the Guardian News and is based in Macksville.
Mel is a journalist at the Guardian News and is based in Macksville.
