Resident riled by wind-blown rubbish
A Lake Takapo¯ /Tekapo resident is angry at the amount of rubbish blowing off construction sites onto his and other land over the past two years.
‘‘Pretty much every day we’ll have a fresh piece of rubbish in our backyard if it’s been windy.
‘‘Every day you look out the window and you see another piece of rubbish there that wasn’t there yesterday,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s worthwhile having a look into the riverbed, where these two big stacks of polystyrene went. It’s quite appalling; they’ll end up in the waterways.
‘‘You just don’t like to see our pristine environment destroyed.’’
The man said the rubbish varies from large sheets of plastic and polystyrene to signs and building materials, and he has reported his concerns to the council but says he is yet to see any improvement.
A Mackenzie District Council spokesperson said the council was aware of the issue.
However, they said it was a challenge to resolve the matter.
‘‘The biggest challenge council faces is determining where the rubbish being blown around has originated from – there are a number of construction sites in the township and the rubbish we have recovered has not been traceable to any particular location.’’
The man who contacted The Timaru Herald said he collected a trailer-load of rubbish from his property in a six-month period.
‘‘I’ve given up picking up the rubbish. It’s an endless task. Every day there’s a bit more out there.’’
He said another neighbour had reported ‘‘full bales of pink batts blow by, and big sheets of plywood’’.
He said the construction sites in the town are not covering their skips, which are being emptied by the wind and the contents blown across the town.
‘‘You drive down the street and it looks just atrocious,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve got chickens here and polystyrene is a big part of their bloody diet now, because it blows over the fence to us.’’
He said it’s not hard to stop rubbish being blown off a building site.
‘‘Everyone else seems to manage to do it. You put a cover over your skip and you make sure when it’s full it gets emptied, rather than the wind emptying it.’’
‘‘It’s common sense really and respect to everybody.’’
The council spokesperson said council compliance officer Mark Offen had visited construction sites in Takapo¯/Tekapo four times in the past few months ‘‘to remind them of their obligations and discuss issues that have arisen’’.
‘‘We have also put in place a process to notify builders in Tekapo when we receive notification of strong winds, to help them take pro-active steps to prevent rubbish being blown offsite.’’
‘‘Mackenzie District Council’s approach is a staged one of promoting awareness and providing assistance, warnings, issuing of enforcement notices and, in serious cases, prosecution.’’