1 March 2017

Media: Rotorua Review

Topic: Illegally dumped rubbish

Inquiry

What is the figure for the cost of clearing up illegally dumped rubbish in Rotorua for 2016?

Secondly I've spoke to [Cr] Charles Sturt and he mentioned he'd proposed council run a yearly in-organic rubbish pick up service for whiteware and the like.

I wanted to ask whether this is something council might consider implementing, and if not, why?

Response

From Rotorua Lakes Council's Transport and Waste Solutions director, Stavros Michael:

The solution to illegal dumping is unfortunately a long term endeavour.

An estimated 0.5% of the 50,000 tonnes of waste generated in the Rotorua district annually is rubbish that has been dumped illegally, compared to 5% of 2.5 million tonnes nationally.

The new collection services have increased the amount of waste people can dispose of at the kerb and a lot of rubbish that's illegally dumped can be disposed of in the weekly kerbside collections.

Illegal dumping is a community issue and people have a personal responsibility to dispose of the waste they generate in a responsible way.

Our current approach is education and working alongside schools and groups at community level to support initiatives like Malfroy School's Utuhina Warriors, Ride to Recycle and last year's successful whiteware waste collection in the eastern suburbs.

Council will also continue to monitor hot spot dumping sites with the aim of gathering appropriate evidence to prosecute offenders.

A key objective of the district's waste strategy is minimising waste, and initiatives like inorganic collections and free landfill days don't necessarily encourage that. However, additional waste services is something elected members could consider as part of future planning if they wished.

Council costs are based on the financial, rather than calendar year, so we don't yet have the total spend for cleaning up illegally dumped rubbish for 2016/17 but during the first half of this financial year we spent $53,000.