Councils restrict scavenging and junk mail

Regulations on unsolicited mail such as advertising flyers will come into effect in July next year. File picture / Michael Cunningham

Two Auckland councils have become the first in the country to pass a bylaw governing unsolicited mail and scavenging during inorganic rubbish collections.

Waitakere City said today the bylaw, part of a joint initiative with North Shore City, amounted to the "most progressive waste minimisation programme" proposed by local government.

A third Auckland council, Rodney District, is expected to pass the same measure in July.

Under the bylaw, it is an offence for unlicensed businesses or individuals to remove inorganic waste put out for collection if it is being taken for resale or commercial gain.

Removal is also banned if it is likely to cause injury, or if other items are scattered or damaged.

However, the councils backed down from an earlier proposal to make all scavengers buy an annual licence.

An ordinary person looking for a lucky find among other people's cast-offs could still take the object away if it didn't create a mess.

Waitakere councillor Vanessa Neeson said the council was responding to residents' complaints during inorganic collections.

"They were ringing us, absolutely furious, that they had put everything neatly out at 8am but came home at 5pm to find TV screens smashed and rubbish strewn across the road," she said.

"Most the time it has been commercial operators coming from even outside the city and it's the ratepayer having to pay again."

The maximum fine under the bylaw is $20,000.

Bylaw regulations on junk mail would not come into effect until July 2006. 

They would not be needed at all if negotiations with the Marketing Association over a voluntary national code of practice ended satisfactorily.

Waitakere City solid waste manager Jon Roscoe said his council was confident a code could be produced that would provide a better outcome than regulation by bylaw.

If not, the bylaw would ban the distribution of any unaddressed or unsolicited material -- including newspapers, public notices and charity appeals -- in letterboxes marked "addressed mail only".

Other restrictions would apply for letterboxes marked "addressed mail and newspapers only", "no junk mail", "no advertising material" or "no circulars".

A Waitakere City study showed that unsolicited mail made up 17 per cent of street litter.

- NZPA