Household waste being illegally dumped
Old duvets and vacuum cleaners are amongst items being illegally dumped, as household waste makes up more than half the rubbish being put in bins in Nelson's parks and reserves.
Now, the Nelson City Council is looking to remove bins, as the city moves towards a “pack in, pack out” approach.
The council is also considering CCTV monitoring some of the worst spots for dumping in a bid to catch culprits, who could face a $400 fine.
The council’s Draft Parks and Facilities Activity Management Plan 2024-2034, adopted by councillors in November, revealed the council planned to “progressively remove rubbish bins from parks and reserves”.
Group manager community services Andrew White said the problem with bins was two-fold: the illegal dumping of household waste and areas where there were too many bins.
In a recent two-week trial, the council found 53% of rubbish collected from parks and reserves was household waste, he said.
“Parks bins are small and intended to be for small amounts of rubbish park users might accumulate while on a walk in a reserve, such as an ice cream wrapper or an apple core.”
Photos taken by contractor Nelmac showed rolls of carpet, boxes of toys and old appliances being left alongside bags and boxes of household rubbish in bins throughout the city.
Nelmac has reported incidents where they would empty a bin, only to find it filled an hour later, White said.
“We have even had reports of large items such as duvets being stuffed into bins immediately after our contractor has emptied it, and before the contractor has left the area.”
“Council pays upwards of $370,000 a year to Nelmac for the emptying of bins in parks and reserves and, as this is an operational cost, it can have a significant impact on rates increases.”
In a bid to combat the dumping the council had posted notices on bins reminding people they could be fined $400, and they were considering putting CCTV at problem sites, White said.
The council had 300 bins in parks and reserves, and had already removed some that were rarely used or close to another bin to “remove inefficiencies” as contractors are paid for each bin they empty.
“In general, this has gone well. Some areas saw a temporary increase in littering, but this diminished as people got used to the new system.”
The next step was to “support, educate and encourage our community on other ways to dispose of their waste”, he said.
“There is an option to adopt the same approach that the Department of Conservation applies to its reserves – pack-in, pack-out.”
The council would also start removing bins where household dumping was happening, he said.
“The bins that remain may be replaced with larger, solar-powered bins, which are capable of compacting and holding a larger volume of waste and will notify the contractor as they require emptying. This will reduce the number of unnecessary servicing trips.”
Bin emptying increased during high use times – such as at Tāhunanui Beach in summer.
The beach was an area where removing bins had been successful, White said.
Bins on the beaches were removed in 2020 after rubbish was being blown into the dunes and ocean.
“Removing the bins was the best way to encourage people to take their rubbish away from the beach.
Having the bins on-site in this pristine natural environment sent a signal that it was acceptable for people to leave litter at the beach.”
Since that change litter on the beach had not increased, he said.
“The bins on the reserve close to the beach are more fully utilised, but people are also more likely to take their rubbish home.”
Encouraging people to take rubbish home was an important part of the council’s strategy.
Often, items thrown into public bins could be taken home to be recycled or composted, he said.
White acknowledged the high cost of living was likely impacting on the number of people dumping rubbish to avoid the cost of bags or private collection, but he said it was just passing the cost on to ratepayers.
“As it’s physically impossible to keep up with emptying the bins and removing rubbish as quickly as bins are filled or rubbish is being dumped, this can result in rubbish escaping into our environment.”