When I saw the ‘Action on Illegal Dumping' story in The Weekend Sun, I thought it was a timely message (August 28, 2015).

As pointed out it's costly and it's also unsightly, and I'm glad something is to be done about it with potential fines of $5ooo.

However, I wonder how effective a warning and a fine system will be. "Council will be monitoring these areas closely in the coming weeks," is the message. But people who do such things as dumping rubbish at the end of rural roads can't be monitored 24/7 and those who are doing it will do it at a time that it will not be monitored. It's the way they work. No civic pride and their rubbish can be dealt with by someone else.

If many parts of the world are suffering from litter problems, and they are, then we can learn from their strategies. There are endless articles of frustration in the UK press about similar-and due to larger population-much greater rubbish issues that they face on an ongoing basis.

Tauranga is not immune from rubbish in public places, as the warning in the paper indicates, but sometimes the smaller detail has to be dealt with first. Some of our estuaries and places of beauty are clogged with rubbish. Welcome Bay estuary, across the road from the shops, is one example, Kaiate Falls is another.

Lots of areas where there are shops are also a mess because purchases of small items with acres of wrapping on, mean that packaging is casually dropped on the path or the grass verges where it is minced by the grass cutters doing their best to keep things looking pristine but in fact scattering the rubbish in a wider arc.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a clean environment for all our communities? What a wonderful message for our many tourist visitors to take home in wonderment!

D Naughton, Tauranga