Rubbish from Raetihi clogging up Whanganui District Council drop-off site

The Te Hue Rd site is about 32km from Raetihi, off State Highway 4.

A rural Whanganui rubbish site is being hit with dumping from a different district, and the council is considering moving it to a secret location.

Whanganui District Council waste service manager Morgan Harrison told the Whanganui Rural Community Board the Te Hue Rd site, about 52km northeast of the city off State Highway 4, had become overrun with illegal dumping.

“We have a litter team that spends half a day there once a week, four hours for a team of five, to clean up the site before our contractor empties those bins,” she said.

“It’s not an efficient use of staff time.”

While some letters found in the rubbish were from Whanganui, most were from Raetihi, she said.

“We have reached out to the Ruapehu District Council and are awaiting a response.”

It was reported last month that Raetihi’s unmanned recycling station on SH4 was close to closure because of overflowing bins, contamination and dumping of non-recyclable rubbish.

Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said fly-tipping was a major issue in his district as well, especially on the outskirts.

“At Pipiriki, people are just throwing stuff over the bank,” he said.

“There are cars and all sorts of crap we have to deal with all the time.

“They do it in darkness, and sometimes we know who it is, sometimes we don’t.”

Kirton said he was happy to discuss the issue with the Whanganui council.

“If rubbish is coming from the Ruapehu area, it’s abuse of a facility set aside for residents,” he said.

Harrison said the council was considering moving the Te Hue Rd site to an undisclosed location or decommissioning it completely.

“We would inform residents about the nearest site, which is Parihauhau Rd. It is a very long way away.”

She said there had been a washing machine in one of the bins, as well as an old water tank and logging waste.

“There is also a large amount of recyclables that could be disposed of in a better way.

“Someone has caught wind [of the site] and just shared the love.”

Mayor Weston Kirton says the Ruapehu council deals with "cars and all sorts of crap" that have been illegally dumped.

The site, close to the Ruapehu District border, was probably more accessible from Raetihi than Whanganui, she said.

Te Hue Rd is about 32km from the Ruapehu town.

From January to November last year, the Whanganui council spent about $80,000 cleaning up 51 tonnes of illegal waste across the district.

Meanwhile, council waste operations manager John Sula said the rural rubbish site at Brunswick was being decommissioned.

“It has gone from a rubbish bag drop-off site to a tie where there is whiteware, bee frames, non-bagged rubbish, animal carcass remains, barbed wire fencing, you name it,” he said.

“This has become a health and safety concern, not only for our litter team who monitor the site, but for the contractor.

“As they remove the items, they’re not sure what else is in there.”

Sula said a rubbish collection contractor would open up more roads on its network to cover the area, with an undisclosed location available for those not receiving that service.

Harrison said at Te Hue Rd, the council was still in “an information gathering stage” rather than enforcement because cameras had only just been installed.

Dumped letters from Raetihi were usually part of household clear-outs, she said.

“By the time you send them a letter [about the dumping], they’re not living in that property any more.

“They’ve dumped their stuff, they’ve moved house, and they’re gone.”

She said 161 tonnes of general rubbish were collected from Whanganui’s rural sites over the past five months.

Harrison told the board the council’s waste plan would be reviewed next year, starting in July.

“Let’s work together and develop a really strong rural solution.

“Put your problem-solving hats on and let’s have a chat about it.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is on local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.