Thousands of dollars of fencing is being installed on Rotorua’s iconic Mt Ngongotahā in a bid to curb the constant rubbish dumping.
Rotorua Lakes Council has spent $24,000 on the problem — including the cost of the fence and collecting the most recent pile of trash.
A local woman who has been cleaning up the maunga for 12 years says from the “expensive” types of rubbish she sees, there is no reason the litterers could not afford to dispose of it properly at the dump.
The view from Mountain Rd can be beautiful. It offers expansive sight of the city and the lake; on a clear winter morning the sunlight hits the water, silhouetting Mokoia Island.
Far below one roadside lookout are rolling hills and rows of homes, chimney smoke puffing into the air from some — quite picturesque.
But immediately below has been an illegal junkyard — until the council cleaned it up this week.
The rubbish included pizza boxes among household waste and old tyres atop broken play equipment.
The problem is not a new one.
Last year Local Democracy Reporting shared how the same spot was littered with rotting animal carcasses.
The council said it had spent an estimated $24,000 to install a 1.8m deer fence along the road “notorious for illegal dumping”, and to clear the rubbish from the “challenging” slip face.
Council waste and climate change manager Craig Goodwin said most of the rubbish could fit in kerbside wheelie bins, with much of it having recycling potential.
“It’s disheartening to see how little regard some people have for the consequence of their actions and the disrespect they have not just on the environment, but also the community or neighbourhood where they are dumping the rubbish they have generated.
“There’s also the cost to the community for cleaning it up and the reputational damage for our beautiful district.”
That cost was $175,000 for the council to clear up illegally dumped rubbish each year.
With a third of public litter bins misused for household rubbish, the council collected 1010 tonnes from them annually.
Goodwin said inorganic collections, reduced landfill fees and surveillance cameras were not the solution, but behaviour change was needed on waste generation and how it was disposed of.
“Making the landfill free or giving out landfill tickets would cost significantly more than it does to clean up illegal dumping each year because someone still has to pay — and the burden would then fall on ratepayers only, rather than it being user pays.
“Inorganic collections (free dumping) have been trialled and abandoned due to the mess they create, the significant cost to the ratepayer and because they’re often abused by people outside of the area. Free dumping also removes the incentive to reuse, repair or recycle.”
He said the council continued to use cameras to monitor dumping hotspots, but there were costs associated with legal action.
“The best thing we can do is encourage the community to treasure their environment and simply do the right thing.”
If you witness illegal dumping, do not approach the offenders but take notes and photos or videos of the person and their vehicle.
Report any dumped rubbish to the council at info@rotorualc.nz or 07 348 4199 as soon as possible so contractors can remove it before it’s added to.
Be a Tidy Kiwi’s new national ambassador, Kiri Danielle, has spent the past 12 years periodically cleaning the mess.
“Looking back over all these clean-ups is very disheartening, but l’m also a very determined woman.”
The first clean-up was in collaboration with hau kāinga, those who whakapapa or connect to that land.
“This is of course a sacred maunga to the people from this area. And it has just been dumped on continuously.”
New Zealand was a beautiful country, she said, but people did not look after it enough.
“We want to protect paradise.”
She had theories about why people dumped their rubbish, including that some wanted to avoid paying the transfer station fees.
“My answer to that is that we all live in the same system, and there are many people that don’t do this.”
There was roadside collection every week, she said, and people needed to plan to do the right thing.
“The rubbish is expensive takeaways, expensive food waste, copious amounts of expensive alcohol, reusable building materials from renovations, tyres from commercial businesses etc ... so no one can tell me these people couldn’t afford the landfill. They just don’t care.”
Danielle said there were environmental issues bigger than litter and dumped rubbish.
“But let’s all get the small stuff right first and then progress from there.”
Rotorua is the launch location of a nationwide campaign in which those seen being tidy —such as putting rubbish in a bin — are awarded a prize.
Danielle will also visit schools and will work with the council on further clean-ups.
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for five years.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Headquarters owner Leo Molloy has offered to compensate the young victim and her father.