Taking out the trash from lockdown
A Nelson trade business has provided a place for people to discard the unwanted remnants of lockdown.
To thank the community for their support of his and other local businesses, Trade Central director Bruce Farquhar has invited the public to put their rubbish out in a free skip located outside their Wellington St office.
Farquhar said the idea came about after hearing stories about people undertaking yard work or cleaning up their home or property during the alert level 4 lockdown and in the weeks since.
‘‘We were also hearing a lot of people had accumulated, maybe not enough to call in a skip or a trailer, but too much to put in their boot and take to the dump.’’
Having been on-call for emergency jobs over the lockdown period, the company’s 20 staff were now back working at full level 2 capacity.
‘‘We get a lot of people ringing saying now, more than any other time, they’d like to support us – this is our way of giving back.’’
The only proviso for dropping off rubbish was no earth, rubble or concrete material.
Farquhar said while he has had to remove the occasional gas bottle, people had been smart about what items had been put in the skip.
Aside from one complaint regarding its location, Farquhar said the skip had received a generally positive response from the public.
The first skip was filled within a week with a new skip coming in on Tuesday.
A third one was likely to be required in the coming days.
However, Farquhar said the offer would not be a long-term undertaking.
‘‘It’s not forever – probably the next couple of skips.
‘‘I hadn’t really given it much thought, but when people stop filling it up, I’ll stop providing it.’’
‘‘We get a lot of people ringing saying now, more than any other time, they’d like to support us – this is our way of giving back.’’ Bruce Farquhar, Trade Central director