What should we do with our rubbish?
Living in the windy Hutt Valley can be a challenge when it comes time to put your recycling out. Many people come home to find their rubbish blown around their garden or see it scattered across the street as high winds blow.
We asked you what you thought we should do with our rubbish and readers were divided.
While 24.3 per cent said we should keep our status quo with weekly open crate collection, a majority – 67.1 per cent – said favoured a switch to wheelie bins.
Abandoning recycling in favour of collection points proved unpopular, with 8.6 per cent in favour.
MAY BARNARD FROM WAINUIOMATA
‘‘Use your common sense. If it’s windy either don’t put it out or have something heavy to put on top. Put in onto plastic bags and tie them together then use something to weight them down. The guys won’t take rocks etc so you can leave them out as a decoration. There are lots of things people can do, if they can be bothered.’’
LANCE TAYLOR FROM WAINUIOMATA
Lance Taylor from Wainuiomata suggested weighing down crates when you put them out.
‘‘You can put something heavy on the recycling but the guys would take whatever you have to hold the rubbish down, empty the bin and turn it upside down which is right but then we lose the empty bin. But I think wheelie bins would be a lot better but still have problems with the lid blowing up and losing the contents if overfilled.’’
DIANE HENDERSON FROM WAIWHETU
Diane Henderson from Waiwhetu had two suggestions: firstly using wheelie bins with clips to secure the lids down for windy days. Secondly, she suggested switching to a fortnightly collection, instead of weekly.
PHILIP TARAMAI FROM WAINUIOMATA
Phillip Taramai from Wainuiomata picked the option of abandoning recycling in favour of collection points.
‘‘I believe that the collection point works equally with both the other two options. As a regular walker that loves walking up the hill summit, the Wise Park collection point is en-route and I’m constantly picking up plastic bottles and recycling them (I actually don’t mind unless it’s an extremely windy day as I can only carry so much) P.S. I see so many others doing this as well because we love our neighbourhood.’’
ETHAN COUCHMAN FROM EASTBOURNE
Ethan Couchman from Eastbourne suggested using some sort of cargo net covering to pu over the current bins instead of switching to wheelie bins.
He said using a system like that would be a lot cheaper and easier than other measures.
ROSALIE BENNETT FROM WAINUIOMATA
Rosalie Bennett from Wainuiomata said she was sick of having to collect rubbish out of her garden after rubbish day.
Like other commenters, Bennett found the winds would pick up whatever she would put out.
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