Illegal rubbish dumping ‘common’

Picking up bags of illegally dumped household rubbish from city parks and reserves, usually in the dead of night, is disappointingly business as usual for Tauranga City Council contractors.

More than a dozen rubbish bags were found strewn on the roadside and over the fence at Harrisons Cut beachside carpark at the weekend, prompting one resident to speak out on the 'disgusting behaviour”.

Bags of rubbish dumped at the Harrison's Cut carpark at the weekend.

Tauranga City Council solid waste manager Nick Roozenberg says unfortunately this is not a one-off, and contractors are constantly cleaning up waste from illegal dumps throughout the city.

'That's just business as usual. This happens all the time someone dumping rubbish,” says Nick.

The rubbish, identified as grass clippings and piles of household carpet, was located just metres from a Tauranga City Council sign stating it is illegal to dump household and garden rubbish, and anyone caught doing so faces a $500 fine.

Instead of dumping the rubbish at the car park, the bags of grass clippings could easily have been turned into compost or taken to a transfer station, says Nick.

Council weren't notified of the pile of rubbish but a council contractor picked up the bags the following day.

Papamoa resident Alastair Lock, who spoke to SunLive about the rubbish, believes better signage and monitoring of the area could go a long way to stopping dumping.

Read more about the resident's comments on the rubbish here.

Nick believes there is adequate signage at reserves and parks, and says people choose to ignore them.

'The ‘no dumping rubbish signs' are not hidden away but quite prominent and that's why people dump rubbish in the dead of the night because they can see the signs and know it's illegal.

'It's not that people don't know it's illegal; so more signs are not going to solve the problem.”

Nick cannot explain why dumping continues to happen, but it is a disappointing blip on council's solid waste programme.

He says it is very hard for council to identify the culprit behind the incident.

'That's [Harrisons Cut] not too far from the Te Maunga Transfer Station so I don't know why.”

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11 comments

don't know why?

Posted on 22-07-2014 10:28 | By GreertonCynic

It wouldn't be the Transfer Station charging nearly $40 for a little household rubbish, just because it turned up in a commercial vehicle? Would it?


It's not surprising...

Posted on 22-07-2014 11:57 | By penguin

...that green waste is dumped. Nick Roozenberg is correct about other uses for lawn clippings but overlooks to advise that there is a cost for this at the transfer station (see TCC website). We recently took "pure" grass clipping green waste to the Maleme Street station only to be told that it had "too much soil in it." This was not possible since the clippings were only from lawns and had been put into compost 'holding bins.' We ended up having to pay a general dump rate! The guy at the station refused to accept that the clipping s were green waste. I am still surprised that green waste is charged for when it is composted and eventually sold back to the community.


No one pays attention to signs anyway !!!

Posted on 22-07-2014 12:23 | By Pom

I wouldn't worry , I was down the Mount Boardwalk on Saturday morning and i saw 3 different couples walking their dogs down there. And there are loads of signs saying NO Dogs $300 Fine, Just something else that the Council don't police very well , I'm a dog owner and i would love to take my dog down there but know i can't so i don't. Why weren't these people fined !!!


Overit

Posted on 22-07-2014 13:41 | By overit

That's why they do it, because someone else will pick it up and deal with it for free. I worked at a local High School and the kids would drop litter while sitting by a rubbish bin. When asked why they did it, the reply was "its your job to pick it up". So probably its someone with the same unmentality.


GreertonCynic

Posted on 22-07-2014 14:53 | By GreertonBoy

Dead right, as long as they charge extortive fees to dump at a 'transfer station' people will dump illegally... even if the amount were reduced to a reasonable figure, only the lazy and stupid would illegally dump including at donation bins... maybe if the old free dumps came back, the rubbish could be burned to make electricity as they do in New York? The key to the problem is the cost.... but by making dumps free again, the money lost would be heavily offset by the reduction of cost of clean up work of illegal dumping sites, and much better for the environment.


easy answer

Posted on 22-07-2014 17:37 | By s83cruiser

to Tauranga City Council solid waste manager Nick Roozenbergs no being able to understand why it is happening. "Take some rubbish to the transfer station sometime Nick and PAY to dump it." Then you will understand why it happens. People don't want to have to take out a mortgage to dump some grass clippings. Took some garden waste to the Maleme Street station last week and it cost me $14. Come on Nick it's not rocket science. It's simple economics People can't afford to be ripped off like this. By the way PENGUIN my lot has soil in it and the guy let it go. Go figure. still got screwed on the dump fee's just the same.


Council needs rethink

Posted on 22-07-2014 17:52 | By lpm67

When is green waste not green waste...when its green of course....we've been turned away with only garden clippings, apparently leaves dont compost and are rubbish! As for the illegal dumping....I am sick of having to pay extra for my recycling bins because the morons in my street think that when I put it out for collection its there for them to dump rubbih in. Still thats better than the morons who put bags out on a Thursday for collection the following Wednesday!!!!! Of course by Wednesday all the loose dogs (where's a ranger when you need one) have torn them open and the rubbish is up and down the street. For a council with some of the highest rates in the country we sure dont get much in the way of basic services!


Rubbish

Posted on 22-07-2014 17:54 | By sangrae

Yes penguin the same thing happened to us a couple of weeks ago with JUST lawn clippings. T agree with overit I worked at a local high school and the same problem existed there.


Overit

Posted on 22-07-2014 18:29 | By overit

I don't know if it has changed recently, but the Wanganui Council lets green rubbish in for free. And yes they do make compost from it, and reap the profit from it. Perhaps our wonderful Council could try this or at least look into the logistics of it.


Pumping

Posted on 23-07-2014 10:15 | By YOGI BEAR

House rubbish, Council want money for it, the more they want the more likely people cant afford it and so just dump it somewhere.


disappearing act costs

Posted on 25-07-2014 10:59 | By ajunct

The magic disappearing act where all your rubbish disappears never to be seen again costs unbelievable amounts of money - from the trucks and fuel to the people and insurance and a million other things. But mostly landfill - burying your crap in as safe, healthy and environmentally sound way as possible for many many years to come costs a lot. Every person in NZ creates kilos of waste each week (don't even start me on disposable nappies) and we want it to magically disappear. The pitifu amount you pay for rubbish bags or dumps fees doesn't even start to cover those costs. Get real! Dumping this crap is costing all of us and our children and their children and so on into the future. Rubbish is expensive - if you can't deal with the small current costs, try a world of TRUE user pays!


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