Rotorua beauty pageant contestants clean up Mt Ngongotahā

Mrs Rotorua 2019 Kristal Webb initiated the annual clean-up in 2020. Photo / Laura Smith

Rotorua beauty pageant queens have ditched their formal gowns and donned rubber gloves to clean up a sacred maunga.

The Miss Rotorua Annual City Clean Up Day was held last weekend at the top of Mt Ngongotahā as part of the community service for the 2023 contestants.

Organiser Kristal Webb - Mrs Rotorua 2019 - said the group wanted to encourage people to do the right thing and stop roadside littering.

The annual event first came about in 2020 when she went for a walk in lockdown and saw the amount of rubbish littering the maunga.

A whole skip bin was filled in that first year, and rubbish included meth pipes and needles.

This year the 22 contestants and volunteers filled a 9 cubic-metre skip bin. Items included animal carcasses, tyres, bed bases and a campervan toilet.

Love Soup Rotorua supplied the team with kai and Smart Environmental was collecting items too large or hazardous for the volunteers to clear.

“We’re just trying to make people aware illegal dumping is happening,” Webb said.

Contestants of this year's Miss Rotorua pageant worked to clean up Mount Ngongotaha last weekend.

Also a former Smart Environmental employee, she said education on the environmental impact improper waste disposal had was a priority.

“Look at climate change, duh.

“Future generations will be left to clean this up.”

She believed the council and iwi had a part to play in finding solutions.

Suggestions she had included installing carvings to deter littering, as well as a hidden trail camera to catch perpetrators.

She said security cameras had been installed in the past and had been stolen, and someone had ripped up a no-littering sign Smart Environmental installed.

Rotorua Lakes Council provided the group with the clean-up resources.

In a statement, the council said the average cost of illegal dumping each year in Rotorua is about $120,000 and about 150 tonnes were recovered each year.

It said finding and collecting litter would require a lot of extra staff and resources that would cause more cost to the community.

Those cleaning up found a number of dumped materials, including animal carcasses and bones. Photo / Laura Smith

“During routine collections, contractors collect any litter around where public bins are located.

“Our inner city team also clean the CBD and surrounding parks every day which includes litter pick-ups. We rely on information from the community about litter issues so we can organise clean-ups.”

In a response to Local Democracy Reporting about what council waste education included, a spokeswoman said it covered waste reduction and recycling through support requests, workshops and engagement and collaboration opportunities.

“Throughout the year there are a number of waste education campaigns run nationally or locally, such as Plastic Free July and Sustainable Backyards month, and we encourage the community to get involved and change their habits to reduce the waste they produce.

“Council also works closely with local community groups to organise clean-ups, gain funding for projects and other initiatives to encourage change on a neighbourhood level.”

Last weekend’s clean-up was typical of what it normally recovered, but she said construction and demolition waste was a common feature at sites of illegal dumping, though generally in relatively small amounts.

“The majority of people dealing with construction and demolition waste do so responsibly.”

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council also get involved when dumped materials are close to a waterway.

Those cleaning up found a number of dumped materials, including animal carcasses and bones. Photo / Laura Smith

An example was when it was notified this kind of waste had been dumped in a roadside drain in May in Hamurana.

Compliance manager Stephen Mellor said in June, when it was clearing the material, the call came from a member of the public to its Pollution Hotline.

The waste was made up of concrete, soil and building materials; some of which was asbestos-containing material (ACM) in the form of bonded cement fragments. A licensed asbestos removal company removed it, and the person who dumped it was identified and responsible for the cost of removing it.

“While we do our best to clean up rubbish as soon as we are aware of it, it shouldn’t be there in the first place.

“If you see people illegally dumping rubbish, please report it to your local council or if it’s in or near a waterway, call our 24/7 Pollution Hotline as soon as possible on 0800 884 883. Regional Council has a dedicated team responsible for responding to Pollution Hotline calls across the region.”

Mt Ngongotahā is within the Ngāti Whakaue rohe.

Ngāti Whakaue Tribal Lands general manager Ray Morrison said the council had recently passed on control of the gate at the top of the maunga that led to its farmland, and so access was limited to those with a key.

He agreed further security measures aimed at deterring dumping in the area would be beneficial as it was a problem on Mountain Rd, he said. Dumping on its farmland was less of a problem.

These possible measures would be investigated, including carvings, he said. He would be supportive of decent lighting and signage being installed in the area.

People can call the council on 07 348 4199 to report instances of illegal dumping for it to be removed.

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 four years.

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