Illegal Dumping Culprits Should Watch Out

In an effort to combat illegal dumping Tararua Council has closed a reserve to vehicles, plans to adopt the infringement provisions of the Litter Act and will install surveillance cameras to help trace the perpetrators.

“it’s locals who are doing it and we’re fed up,” says solid waste manager Jeremy Hirst.
In a serious attempt to mitigate the problem the council has now closed the popular Poplar Reserve in Pahiatua to vehicles because staff are sick of dealing with old car parts, nappies, green waste and hazardous household waste capable of spreading diseases like e.coli and campylobacter.

Glass too, with reports that “kids have even been getting it in their feet”, Mr Hirst says.
General inspector Tracey Boswell is equally forthright accusing the culprits of “laziness and a lack of Kiwi pride.”

Whilst acknowledging that dumping fees have gone up she says that most of what is picked up is recyclable – glass for example.

Of greatest concern is the poor image that illegal dumping – including the incidence of green waste pests like Old Man’s Beard - gives to Tararua’s natural beauty when “the district has so much to offer.

“We have a little piece of Paradise so why do we show such little care for it?”

Ms Boswell points out that with the end of the financial year still a month away the council is over its illegal dumping budget with the December 2009 monthly clean up exceeding budget by 699%. By the end of March 2010 more than $3,600 had been spent.

To give staff more ‘teeth’ the council plans to invoke the infringement provisions of the 1979 Litter Act in which offenders can be fined in a ascending scale of $100 - $400 depending on the volume and type of waste deposited. A single disposable nappy for example incurs a $200 fine, while multiple nappies, glass, animal remains or car parts are $400. This proposal has been publicly notified and should be adopted in early June.

And as the two surveillance cameras are mobile they’re likely to turn up anywhere ensuring that culprits will be more easily found.

Illegal dumping was an “abhorrent practice that is taking its toll financially”, Ms Boswell said.
“And those left with the clean cost are you, the ratepayers.”