Editorial: Why treat Bay as your rubbish tip?

The scourge of illegally dumped rubbish on Hawke's Bay's otherwise picturesque landscape has not just sparked up since the region's councils put a cost on having to pay to get into the refuse transfer stations.

It was around long before that, Hastings District Council waste minimisation officer Dominic Salmon told me this week.

He and his team were left shaking their heads after someone decided to dump a dozen rubbish bags across the pristine spread of Te Mata Peak a couple of weekends back - because after weighing the rubbish it transpired that to take it to the transfer station would have cost about $12.

Those who dumped it were tracked and issued with an infringement notice which is for a sum at least 10 times that - possibly more.

I have seen illegally dumped rubbish on too many occasions, and it saddens me.

It also bewilders me, as in some cases I've spotted just one or two rubbish bags flung into a creek or dumped beside small public rubbish bins in parks and reserves.

Do these people not realise that the councils stage a weekly event called a rubbish collection ... and it's free.

You put your bag, or bags, out by the roadside and they will come and pick them up for you.

Rubbish and litter is as offensive an eyesore as graffiti. It is unnecessary.

Particularly in cases where the culprits throw out paper and cardboard food wrappings, cans and bottles.

Again, there are regular collection programmes operating in the name of re-cycling.

It's not rocket science.

Illegal dumping is a plague across the board because, as Mr Salmon explained, his officers also came across gutted animal carcasses from time to time.

These dumpers are not part of society's thinking or caring fabric.

If it's no longer in their backyard, but effectively in someone else's, then all is well in their world.

I was heartened to hear that regular dumping blackspots are now under camera surveillance and that waste and pollution officers are targeting the places, times and contents of illegal dumping.

There's often a giveaway clue somewhere in the bagged refuse.

But the number one antidote bearers to this scourge are more often than not members of the public.

People who see rubbish being tipped out from car boots or utes or trailers, or whatever, are urged to get vehicle details and get that information to the councils.

It's nice and green - let's help keep it clean.