Dumped rubbish threatens ‘green’ scheme
Illegal rubbish has put the future of a long-standing green waste scheme at Patea Beach under review.
Household refuse and broken TV sets are regularly being dumped at a site set aside for items such as tree prunings and lawn clippings for use in a sand dune stabilisation project.
Although the collection point is only intended for use by private Patea and local area residents, South Taranaki District Council said people were driving from as far away as Manaia and Hawera to dump green waste.
The site was also sometimes used by contractors todump truck loads of material, which was not permitted as the project could not cope with too much, council operations manager Herbert Denton said.
‘‘We have certainly had some contractors dropping off loads of unwanted material.’’
The unwanted rubbish is collected by council contractors every fortnight. Denton said a report on the future of the project would be presented to the council’s policy development committee next week.
A Patea resident who wouldn’t give his name told the Taranaki Daily News there was often household refuse and televisions left at the site.
He had also found household refuse buried amongst loads of lawn clippings.
The rubbish sometimes ended up down on the beach, he said.
‘‘It is the only seaside rubbish tip in the country.’’
On Tuesday two large TVs were conspicuous among piles of green waste, along with plastic rubbish.
Waverley residents Judy Jensen and Chris Sorensen, who were at the site to drop off tree prunings, said they often noticed old TVs and rubbish lying about.
Denton said a sign at the entrance clearly stated what material was accepted, but people ignored it.
Although surveillance cameras had been set up from time to time, policing the site was difficult as it was a wide area, not staffed and open to the public.
The project was originally started to help capture sand that otherwise would be blown on to neighbouring homes, he said.
It had been quite successful as the green waste helped trap loose sand and build the dunes.
Recent storm tides had scoured out some of the accumulated sand on the sea side of the dunes but this would recover in time, he said.
A report presented to the Taranaki regional Council’s consents and regulatory committee meeting on Tuesday said the STCD had demonstrated ‘‘a high level of environmental and administrative performance with their resource consent’’ for the site.