Latest news with #deceasedestates
ABC News
28-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Circular economy of a new age of old stuff flourishes as Australians scrimp and save
A few minutes walking the aisles of an opportunity shop are enough for a shopper to ponder how utilitarian and disposable Australia's society has become. The artefacts of a passing generation go begging for sale. At any op shop around Australia brooches, stoles, clutch purses and gloves, as well as floral teacups, doilies and crystal vases come together in a cluttered shrine of sorts to a generation that survived two world wars. The Depression-era salvage mentality of keeping the good stuff for a special occasion was drummed into the post-war generation. But by the late 1960s cheap imports, mass manufacturing, plastics and technology would pave the way for a more casual, comfort and convenience-driven Australian lifestyle. Modern families thought nothing of disposing of unwanted items and replacing them with something new. Stradbroke-based recycler Nathan Bruce has made it his life's mission to reduce waste wherever possible, clearing unwanted items from deceased estates, downsizers, garage sales and hoarders. "I recycle everything. When it comes to deceased estates I do whole properties, so I will recycle a broken brick, a rusty tin, even putting a piece of paper into a cardboard bin to reduce the waste however I can," he said. "It's mainly older people who are downsizing and don't have the ability to do it themselves, or the family is not willing to help. That's where I come in." In building his Aladdin's cave crammed with antiques, records, DVDs, Tupperware, electric goods and bric-a-brac, Mr Bruce has come across everything from rats to 200-year-old coins in his hunt for treasure. Hazardous items like mouldy books and chipped ceramics must be thrown out, and not all plastics can be recycled. But the licensed second-hand dealer is determined to upcycle and sell the unsellable at his shopfront in Sale. Broken appliances are pulled apart for their wood, motors, copper and wires. "Silver is not worth much, about $1 a gram. Depending on the gold value a broken ring can get up to $30 to $40 a gram from some jewellers as scrap gold," Mr Bruce said, "Copper is about $10 to $11 a kilo so it all builds up if you have hundreds of pieces together. They're worth something." Mr Bruce said it was younger generations who were driving the second-hand and recycling movement as they dealt with their concerns for the environment and rising cost-of-living. At Morwell in the Latrobe Valley, vacant shops line the main street against a backdrop of a bustling op shop trade. William Smith is the warehouse coordinator at the Lifeline Gippsland thrift store and said women's clothing was always their biggest seller. "We never get enough men's clothing donated and that's because men generally wear their stuff until it dies. Then it gets thrown out," he said. "Whereas women tend to change their clothes regularly." Mr Smith said op shops had become the department stores of choice for the working poor and cash-strapped middle-class. "Shein, Anko, Temu, they're very much fast fashion where you wear it once and it's ruined," he said. "If you're going into an op shop you've got that potential of finding a quality item at a bargain price. "We don't want junk. Basically the best thing to think about when you're donating is, 'Would you buy it from or sell it to a family member?'" Mr Smith said old towels and blankets were often purchased by animal shelters, dog kennels and catteries, or cut up to be used as rags. "We have a secondary process where any old towels, windcheaters and T-shirts that we can't sell we repurpose into rags and we sell them in 10-kilogram bags to the industrial sector," he said. He said donations of crockery and bric-a-brac were always welcomed. "We sort it and we sell what we can, and what we can't we sell to an exporter, who then sells it on the second-hand market in developing countries overseas," Mr Smith said. "That way we can still raise money for our cause, which is the crisis line for Lifeline, and it doesn't end up in landfill." East Gippsland Shire Council waste minimisation officer Carina Turner said tremendous inroads had been made to improve sustainability and de-stigmatise hand-me-downs. "Repair cafes, tool libraries, general libraries and toy libraries are all part of a circular economy," she said. Ms Turner noted the success of initiatives like the container deposit scheme, which has been embraced by community groups for fundraising. "There's still an awful lot going in to landfill so we haven't yet solved the problem by any stretch of the imagination. But we are keeping more and more items out of landfill," she said. Ms Turner said new technologies had allowed for mattress springs to be recycled into fencing and polystyrene packaging to be turned into bricks. "More and more customers are expecting that the company that they choose to buy from will have sustainability as part of their business models," she said.
ABC News
03-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Millions in unclaimed deceased estates transferred to Queensland government as beneficiaries unable to be found
Millions of dollars in deceased estates have gone to the Queensland government in recent years after authorities were unable to find a beneficiary to inherit the money. Between 2020 and 2024, the Public Trustee transferred $2.95 million from ten estates to Queensland Treasury, with the funds put into consolidated revenue. Most of the funds came from a single estate worth $2 million that was given to the state government in 2021. The Queensland Public Trustee's office said funds could be transferred to the state when potential beneficiaries had died before the owner of the deceased estate. It can also happen when a beneficiary is identifiable but cannot be tracked down. When this occurs, the Public Trustee holds onto the funds for six years to allow potential claimants to come forward or be located. Public Trustee Samay Zhouand said his organisation did the "utmost within its powers" to find beneficiaries of deceased estates before transferring them to treasury. "Should a beneficiary emerge in the future, those funds remain available without time limit to those beneficiaries to claim," he said. The Succession Act in Queensland dictates who inherits what, including in circumstances when a person has not left a will. This is known as dying in intestate, with the deceased's estate distributed to next of kin in line with the Act. But it cannot go to relatives who are more remote than first cousins. The former Labor government began a review of the Succession Act in 2023, but did not finish it before leaving office. A spokesperson for the new Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said she had requested a comprehensive briefing of the review. The former government outlined a range of possible changes in a discussion paper. This included essentially banning adult children from contesting their parents' will if the estate is worth less than $250,000, as well as changing the definition of a spouse. Angela Cornford-Scott, who is chair of the Queensland Law Society's succession law committee, said the process of creating a straightforward will was not difficult or overly expensive. "If the people make a will and they don't have family members, they can at least direct their entitlements to friends or to charities where that money could actually do some good," she said. Ms Cornford-Scott pointed out if someone died without a will and did not have a spouse or children their estate could go to their parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, or cousins. She said in her career she had dealt with four or five cases where genealogists had to be engaged to identify the family tree. "Although four or five might not sound like a lot over a 25 year career, you remember them because they are so difficult and so unnecessarily complex and expensive," she said. Ms Cornford-Scott also said the Succession Act should be modernised, noting "things have changed dramatically" since it was created in 1981.
