Illegal waste has high price

Mattresses and other household items dumped beside a clothing bin at a lay-by on Maunu Rd. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Illegally dumped rubbish on roadsides has cost Whangarei District ratepayers between $70,000 to $80,000 to clean up in the past year.

Whangarei District Council (WDC) figures indicate there has been a 29 per cent increase in the number of fly tipping incidents this summer compared with last.

Council staff say the problem is not due to the charges to take rubbish to the ReSort transfer station in Kioreroa Rd.

"Some may say that it has increased due to our disposal charges, but fly tipping has been a historical problem in all districts and the majority of it comes down to a small minority of people," WDC field officer Grant Alsop said.

However changes are afoot, with the opening hours of the district's transfer stations due to be shortened for a three-month trial period starting on Monday.

Staff follow up reports, can often trace the owners of rubbish through items that have been dumped, check car registrations and often successfully prosecute offenders, Mr Alsop said.

Several people contacted the Northern Advocate about fly tipping after the paper ran a story about piles of rubbish left around recycled clothing bins.

Bins at Tikipunga's Paramount Plaza were removed immediately by their owner, secondhand clothing store Savemart, after a news item on February 4 about the problem.

Residents living near bins at different locations in Whangarei said the long-term problem includes not just the dumping of rubbish but people then picking through it and strewing the mess further.

Two women whose properties overlook commonly used dumping sites asked not to be named because they feared intimidation from the "looters".

A Hikurangi man said dumping at Gilby Rd in the past week included the intestines and heads of two butchered sheep left on the road berm.