Bottle refund push to stop illegal dumping in Northland

Workers cleaning up an illegal dump in Ngaiotonga Scenic Reserve said 60 to 80 per cent of the garbage was recyclables. Photo/Michael Cunningham

Disposing of recycling in Northland is free. But it seems this isn't enough to stop people dumping.

Instead, some are calling for the introduction of a container refund scheme, which would put a small refundable deposit on drink cans, and plastic and glass bottles.

Jane Banfield of Paihia Zero Waste said such a scheme, assuming a 10 cent refund, would have seen her make $4.20 in a 10-minute bike ride up Paihia's Seaview Rd this week.

"By next year every state in Australia will have a 10 cent refundable deposit on every drink can, and plastic and glass bottle ... it's a no-brainer," she said.

During the recent clean-up of an illegal dump in Ngaiotonga Scenic Reserve holding hundreds of cubic metres of rubbish, workers said 60 to 80 per cent of the garbage was recyclables.

Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis said the situation was similar at a site he cleaned up this week about 20km from Ngaiotonga in the Waikare Gorge. He too suggested that a container refund scheme could work.

Environmentalist Warren Snow, who helped found Kaitaia's CBEC, modelled a refund scheme in a report released in July and said it would create thousands of jobs and divert 180,000cu m of waste from landfill.

"You won't see bottles lying in the gutter, tossed over banks or drifting out to the sea when they are worth 10 cents," Mr Snow said.

At the 2016 Local Government New Zealand Conference, councils called on the Government to implement "container deposit legislation" (CDL) within two years. The Government was yet to action this.

WDC field officer Grant Alsop dealt with the public's daily complaints about fly-tipping, which cost Whangarei ratepayers $7000 to $8000 a month. He estimated about 40 per cent of illegal dumping was of recyclables.

He said CDL was "a good idea", but may not stop the people who participated in mass dumping.

"The offenders of that sort of fly-tipping are just filthy and lazy and are not concerned about polluting our environment," Mr Alsop said.