Overflowing rubbish bins in Whangārei's town basin. Photo / Supplied
Whananāki community residents are tired of cleaning other people's mess, and overflowing rubbish bins just add to the burden.
Whananāki south resident Maria Lawton says the people in the community are reliant on bins which are now overflowing and abused by some locals or others visiting the area.
It is an ongoing issue, says Lawton.
"It is okay 80 per cent of the time, but when we have visitors especially over the summer period. They don't always take their stuff with them and leave it behind.
"Then we have bach owners and when they come out during Christmas, Labour weekend or any other long weekend, all of a sudden, they are having a spring clean and they dump inorganic stuff in it. There is also no way of finding who dumped it there."
Lawton said they had to ring the council "half the time" or else they don't bother coming.
"They (council) got no other option and neither do we. They said if it is abused for too long, we might end up losing the bins, and then we all have to take our rubbish to Hikurangi, which is miles down the road.
"Otherwise, people will just go across the north side and clog their rubbish bins too. People just leave their rubbish here and it ends up accumulating in the bush.
"There was a sign attached, proving they are dumping illegally. We need to educate people on the issue. There should be a fine to anyone caught dumping their rubbish illegally."
The only council litter bins in Whananāki, Matapouri, Ngunguru, Tutukaka are at Whale Tail Park in Pine Rd, Ngunguru, and Whananāki North.
Any other bins in the area are services by the locals and shop and other business owners.
Solid Waste engineer David Lindsay said the council bins were emptied daily.
"Between the December 24 and January 5 maintaining the capacity in the bins is a challenge, however increasing the number of bins is not thought to be an effective way to deal with the problem.
"Removing bins from areas like the Whangārei Heads has proven to be more effective."
Lawton was furious and said visitors came in, had a good time, and the community members were left to clean their mess.
"The rubbish flies all over the place, the wind picks it up and off it goes over the paddocks and everywhere.
"On Christmas Eve, I went down to double-check as the bins were getting full then. The freedom camping area was starting to fill up and not with the self-contained units, but they were putting up their tents for a couple of days, and surely, they dumped their rubbish there.
"That night I noticed people had dumped their inorganic waste into the bin. Somebody had dumped their mattress, someone left chairs, and so on. And the rubbish bags were starting to pile up because the (bins) were already full. It is so irresponsible."
Whangārei District councillor Nicholas Connop said once the bin was full, people kept loading rubbish around it which was part of the problem.
Connop went out on a rubbish cleanup drive around Whangārei Town Basin on January 4 where he came across overflowing rubbish bins and collected a big bag of trash from the surroundings.
"A lot of the problem also stems from when people rush the dump and do not crush it down into the bin, it fills the bin really rapidly. Coffee cups and pizza boxes fill out the bin quite quickly and when it's full, they start piling the rubbish around the bin.
"Some people will actually do things, but the majority won't unfortunately. The next thing you know, the huge pile of rubbish just starts blowing around which really amplifies the time it takes to deal with it as well.
"Contractors would usually go to the bin, pull the bin out and go to the next one. But, if they have to pick up a whole lot of rubbish around them, that just increases their workload and the time to do the job. Basically, their runs take 2-3 times longer.''