Family pick up the slack
When somebody dumped rubbish on the outskirts of Invercargill, they didn’t count on a do-gooder family of seven getting their hands dirty.
Out on a family walk, the Cooks spotted piles of rubbish discarded near their Seaward Bush home.
Thankfully there were plenty of hands to muck in as the five children got to work.
Now sitting in a neat pile in a trailer at the family home, the rubbish which someone thought fine to dump on the side of the road included a mattress, a car bonnet, speakers, a DVD player and part of a television.
Mum Rachel Cook said she believed those who had dumped the items were probably from town who didn’t want to pay dump fees.
The eldest child, 12-year-old Riley, said it was annoying whoever ditched it could not be bothered doing it properly.
However, he was happy to get the job done.
‘‘It feels good to do a good thing,’’ Riley said.
Dad, Jamie Cook, said it was great that the Invercargill City Council would come and pick it up for them, free of charge.
The Invercargill dump reopened in alert level 3 and queues of cars were lined up when the gates opened last week.
After recycling was sent to landfill during level 4, WasteNet Southland and Southland disAbility Enterprises recycling processing services will restart on May 11.
Invercargill City Council interim communications team leader Hannah McLeod said council staff were impressed with the Cook family’s efforts.
‘‘Littering and illegal dumping is, sadly, an ongoing issue in our community. It’s great to see the Cook family have taken the initiative to do their bit in their neighbourhood.
‘‘Given the challenges Covid-19 presents for everyone in dealing with this type of activity, we were happy to arrange for our contractors to assist the Cook family after they were simply doing a good deed,’’ she said.
However, McLeod encouraged all illegal dumping be reported to council staff before any members of the public had a go at cleaning it up themselves.
‘‘Our compliance team need to hear about any activity like this, because it gives us a chance to investigate the dump site, check whether there might be anything to identify the offender, and will help inform our future compliance monitoring,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s also important to remember while we are at alert level 3 for Covid-19, to be careful not to touch anything which might put you at risk.’’