Windblown rubbish puts sheep at risk
Windblown rubbish escaping a Feilding recycling centre is putting a nearby stream and sheep at risk, says a concerned resident.
Duncan Mcgillivray first noticed rogue debris from the Feilding Transfer Station scattered along Kawakawa Rd last year.
Upon further investigation, he found plastic bags and blocks of polystyrene sitting in neighbouring paddocks among about 20 ewes.
The paddock’s water trough was clogged with plastic bags, which are also tangled in fences and polluting a nearby stream.
He took his concerns to the Manawatu District Council two months ago, and spoke with the chief executive, but he hadn’t noticed any improvement.
Mcgillivray said periodical flooding caused the creek to carry rubbish downstream, sometimes as far as the Oroua River.
A 2-metre-high pile of polystyrene was of most concern, he said. Several blocks of the nonbiodegradable polymer had flown over the fence, ending up in the paddock and on the river bank.
It takes about 250 years to break down.
Mcgillivray, a former shepherd, said animals did not recognise polystyrene foam as an artificial material and mistook it for food.
It can also have serious effects on the health of birds or marine animals that swallow significant amounts.
‘‘Sheep and cattle are very curious animals. Bits of plastic will get caught in their teeth or they’ll swallow it. It could cause infection or choke them.’’
The transfer station has a 5-metre-high fence designed to contain rubbish, but parts of the netting were frayed.
‘‘It’s not a couple of plastic bags, it’s out of control,’’ Mcgillivray said.
Manawatu District Council special projects manager Chris Pepper said the transfer centre was at full capacity. It had drawn two complaints this year, but Pepper said most of the rubbish was unlikely to have come from the waste station.
‘‘Given the prevailing wind, it is possible that some of the litter on the roadside has come from vehicles visiting the site.’’
While all rubbish on the site would ideally be contained, some light-weight rubbish would always escape, he said.
‘‘Light-weight rubbish is easily caught by the wind and may not be trapped by the site fencing.’’
Mcgillivray accepted that not all rubbish could be contained, but said it would take less than five minutes a day to walk the centre’s perimeter.
‘‘If I was 10 years younger, it’d take me a week to clean it all up in the state it’s in now.’’
Pepper said the council spoke with the operator regularly to identify where rubbish escaped from and how to minimise the issue.
The council is planning a new resource recovery facility, which includes a refuse transfer station to reduce windblown litter.