Controls on scavengers and junk mail head for bin

A bold anti-litter plan to license kerbside scavengers and enforce the "no junk mail" stickers on letterboxes seems itself headed for the wastepaper basket.

Waitakere and North Shore City Councils mooted the crackdown as part of a joint review of waste bylaws.

But the councils are having second thoughts after residents said the moves were oppressive and restricted people's freedom to find prizes among people's cast-offs and to read whatever they liked.

The councils proposed to make all scavengers buy a $300 annual licence and risk a fine of up to $20,000 if they made a mess at council inorganic rubbish collections.

They also considered introducing a bylaw which would prohibit the delivery of unaddressed mailbox advertising to households that displayed a "no circulars" sign.

A spokesman for the councils said yesterday that their hearings committees felt compulsory licensing for scavengers was inappropriate.

"They did not want to see the ordinary person, who spots something like a lamp shade, being penalised for taking it. What they want to prevent through the bylaw is the commercial scrap dealers who are making a huge mess in the streets," the spokesman said.

Instead, the bylaw is likely to ban removal of articles for the purpose of resale or commercial gain, or removal in a way that is likely to cause injury, a scattering of waste or damage or breakage.

Enforcing a total ban on commercial scavenging will also help Waitakere City Council's own salvage operations. Contractors deliver the city's inorganic collection to the council's Henderson sorting facility.

Present sale of salvaged items makes $300,000 a year which goes towards the cost of the ratepayer-funded inorganic collection.

The North Shore City Council won't get that benefit as its contractor delivers to Waste Management's landfill at Redvale.

Meanwhile, the Marketing Association says the councils have listened to its concerns about bylaw affecting advertising circulars.

Association chief executive Keith Norris said members, who distribute 90 per cent of unsolicited advertising mail, have won a year's grace in order to bring in a national code of practice.

"Self-regulation nationally is a much better solution than individual council bylaws," said Mr Norris.