A bumper year for Maraenui cleanup

Mary Mohawk (left), Levi Armstrong and a masked hero from the local police pile rubbish into a skip during Clean-up in the 'Nui. Photo / Warren Buckland

A second annual pre-Christmas cleanup day in Napier suburb Maraenui has turned into a two-day exercise leaving organisers wondering how it can cope with the demand.

It had been scheduled to be done and dusted in six hours from 9am to 3pm on Monday.

Organisers had to return the next morning to move a mountain of other unwanted and no-longer-usable furniture, mattresses, bikes, whiteware and other items, from its drop-off point on vacant housing land at the corner of Percy Spiller Ave and Bestall St.

But they still had more than 20 homes to visit for kerbside collection from people who had been unable to unload get their trash to the site.

Again working into the afternoon, city council Nelson Park Ward member Maxine Boag, also a member of Clean-up in the Nui co-ordinator Tu Tangata Maraenui Trust, said it had been "distressing" on Monday looking at "the mountain" and knowing they'd run out of time.

But the community was back in action on Tuesday - including Boag, having made a late apology for missing the last council meeting of the year - and at least three more skips were filled, in addition to timber claimed from the mountain for firewood, whiteware collected by a recycling business, and items gathered by a scrap-metal dealer.

Boag said 20 tonnes of property had been removed in the two days, with crews including trust members, police officers, gang members, Maori wardens and other community volunteers.

Greenmeadows Rotary Club provided trailers, and solid waste and recyclables company Clean Earth provided trucks, bins and a compactor, Boag comparing the increased demand by saying: "On a scale of one to 10, last year it was about four – this year it was 10."

The demand came despite the exclusion of concrete, demolition or hazardous materials, oil, paint, wired products or tyres.

A small queue was waiting to drop off when the cleanup started on Monday and it was soon evident how it would evolve.

"I think we overestimated what we could do, and underestimated the demand," she said.

Tu Tangata Maraenui obtained a Puawaitanga Fund grant from the council but it was ultimately a big community effort, out of a desire to stop the buildup of household and backyard items, Boag said.

She was sure it would also have stopped some of the "fly-dumping" at the roadsides and the demand appeared to have stretched wider than just the Maraenui area.

"We don't know where everyone came from," she said. "But the good thing was it came from the community, for the community. And it was the community that was here helping out all day."