Rural Illegal Rubbish Dumping

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BlueOwl

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#2935831 29-Jun-2022 11:21

We get them frequently down our rural road, and we usually report them to the council (Auckland) who are pretty good at getting a contractor to pick it up.

We got some feedback from the council a while ago that they successfully prosecuted someone over it after finding identifying information in the pile. It turned out to be one of the commercial rubbish disposal companies, they literally drove their truck down the road while someone in the back chucked all the rubbish out onto the road. Didn't even bother putting it to the side.

A few years ago we had the road partially blocked by a massive tree stump - must have been 2metres diameter and weighed a ton. It was chained to a concrete power pole which took some head-scratching to figure out why. The way they dumped it off their truck was to chain it to the post, then jump in the truck and drive off ...

One of these days I'll get one of those cheap battery powered trail cameras and hide it up a tree to catch these people. The council says photo evidence is usually need for a successful prosecution.

Geektastic

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#2935851 29-Jun-2022 12:07

Bung:
Geektastic:

Whilst not at all approving of such things, it has to be said that - at least in the rural world - councils do not really help. We lived about 3 minutes by car outside Martinborough and the council would not collect bins or recycling from our address.

3 minutes gets you a long way out of Martinborough, how many bins within 100m would there be?

When we stayed in Italy there was no individual collection but there were large bins around town that you could dump your rubbish into.

Within 100m of what?

outdoorsnz

674 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2935872 29-Jun-2022 12:51

BlueOwl:

A few years ago we had the road partially blocked by a massive tree stump - must have been 2metres diameter and weighed a ton. It was chained to a concrete power pole which took some head-scratching to figure out why. The way they dumped it off their truck was to chain it to the post, then jump in the truck and drive off ...

One of these days I'll get one of those cheap battery powered trail cameras and hide it up a tree to catch these people. The council says photo evidence is usually need for a successful prosecution.

Have seen way way worse than the photo I provided at a popular walking access road end I tramp from - Whare Flat Mosgiel. Literally truck loads. Everything including the kitchen sink! And worse animal bits. If you've ever had your dog roll in a dead pig skin, you will know what I'm talking about! Oh man drove home with all windows down and triple triple washed my dog. RIP.

Garden waste / trees etc is just about as bad, still creates an eye sore, spreads weeds and rubbish gets in the mix.

decibel

315 posts

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#2935947 29-Jun-2022 13:34

In my younger days this sort of problem didn't exist.

I wonder if the fact that the local council rubbish tip was free and always open, had anything to do with it?

outdoorsnz

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#2935951 29-Jun-2022 13:45

decibel:

In my younger days this sort of problem didn't exist.

I wonder if the fact that the local council rubbish tip was free and always open, had anything to do with it?

I not really sure if cost is the major reason / excuse for why people do these type of things. It is something I've seen being a keen tramper for 20+ years.

For example, why would you chuck 20 odd wine bottles out the window while going for a country drive when it is free to get rid of. Simply they don't give a toss.

MikeB4

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#2935961 29-Jun-2022 14:07

I feel the cost of using landfills does have impact on illegal dumping. For folks struggling to house and feed their families the $25 plus to go to the landfill is too much. Then there is the difficulty and cost of disposing the likes of the abomination that is polystyrene the problem gets horrific especially around Te Whanganui a Tara.

tweake

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#2935964 29-Jun-2022 14:14

decibel:

In my younger days this sort of problem didn't exist.

I wonder if the fact that the local council rubbish tip was free and always open, had anything to do with it?

absolutely.

while there was and always will be lazy buggers who throw trash out the window, the large scale dumping we see today was never around. i would much rather see free rubbish tip and the cost of that put on new items.

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Wheelbarrow01

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#2936278 29-Jun-2022 23:38

Geektastic:

Whilst not at all approving of such things, it has to be said that - at least in the rural world - councils do not really help. We lived about 3 minutes by car outside Martinborough and the council would not collect bins or recycling from our address.

I own a property in Otematata (Waitaki District, North Otago/South Canterbury). The town has most amenities - a shops, a cafe, a couple of pubs and a fuel station. But no council funded kerbside rubbish or recycling collection, even though there are around 400 houses. Admittedly many are holiday homes not occupied year round.

There is a waste transfer station in town, open for 3 hours, 2 days a week. It costs $30 to dump a standard 240 litre wheelie bin. I am always motivated to jump in the bin to compact it down as much as I can. The station has no weigh bridge so a trailer load of rubbish or green waste is assessed by eye to determine volume. Some of the guys that work there have better eyes than others. It often becomes a negotiation - "Terry there's no way that's 3 cubes of green waste mate, it's more like 2.5 - or 2 if you give me 30 seconds to stomp it down a bit more".

We also have to sort our own recycling by hand at the station - eg bottles have to be sorted by colour (brown in one massive bin, clear in another, green in another etc), aluminium cans, tin cans, plastic bottles, cardboard, paper etc all have to be hand sorted by the person wanting to get rid of it. I am almost certain it all ends up in the same truck at the end of the day - I'm not entirely convinced they send a separate truck an hour inland from Oamaru to pick up each bottle colour......

MikeAqua

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#2936329 30-Jun-2022 09:46

We have a pretty good system* in Blenheim. It's easier and usually free to dispose of rubbish legally than fly-tip. But, people still fly-dump in council bags.

* Every year, each residential household gets a coupon for a certain number of free rubbish bags (redeemable at the supermarkets). You can buy more if you need. Those bags are for free kerbside collection or can be taken to the transfer station any day of the week for free. The rubbish bag skip is even close enough to the fence, that you could throw your bags in after hours (although you aren't supposed to). There is also free kerbside recycling and the recycling station is open seven days. Reasonably good for a small town.

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Bung

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#2936388 30-Jun-2022 10:58

Wheelbarrow01:
I own a property in Otematata (Waitaki District, North Otago/South Canterbury). The town has most amenities - a shops, a cafe, a couple of pubs and a fuel station. But no council funded kerbside rubbish or recycling collection, even though there are around 400 houses. Admittedly many are holiday homes not occupied year round.

There is a waste transfer station in town, open for 3 hours, 2 days a week. It costs $30 to dump a standard 240 litre wheelie bin.

Just out of interest I stuck an address in Tasman Street into Waste Management, $22.60 for 240l bin pick up.

Lias

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#2943254 17-Jul-2022 23:59

While there will always be a small few who do it regardless, I also believe most of this sort of thing can be blamed on councils reducing, overcharging for, or simply withdrawing rubbish services.

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Wheelbarrow01

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#2943257 18-Jul-2022 01:25

Bung:
Wheelbarrow01:

I own a property in Otematata (Waitaki District, North Otago/South Canterbury). The town has most amenities - a shops, a cafe, a couple of pubs and a fuel station. But no council funded kerbside rubbish or recycling collection, even though there are around 400 houses. Admittedly many are holiday homes not occupied year round.

There is a waste transfer station in town, open for 3 hours, 2 days a week. It costs $30 to dump a standard 240 litre wheelie bin.

Just out of interest I stuck an address in Tasman Street into Waste Management, $22.60 for 240l bin pick up.

Yea we've thought of it, but it's a holiday home so we'd most often not be there on the correct day to put the bins out (and/or wouldn't be there to bring them back in again). We can't rely on neighbours for that as they are all holiday homes too.

We've learned to live with it - it's a first world problem...

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