Auckland mayor Phil Goff continues crusade against illegal rubbish dumping

Mayor Phil Goff helps with the inorganic waste at today's event. Photo / Supplied

Last month Auckland mayor Phil Goff put his vocal chords into action on illegal dumping.

This month, he put his muscles to work at a community event in Otara aimed at curbing the practice.

Goff took part in Neat Streets, an event organised by the Otara Waterways and Lake Trust, to put illegal dumping in the spotlight, allow residents to dispose of inorganic rubbish and learn how to minimise waste.

From left, Marcial Keesing, Renee Rapara and Tania Webb at today's event. Photo / Supplied

It's an issue close to Goff's heart.

Three weeks ago the first-term mayor let rip on Facebook, posting photos of dumped barrel loads of oil filters on the side of the road near his rural Ardmore home - which he'd spotted while travelling to work - and saying that he'd "had a gutsful" of illegal rubbish dumpers.

He called for a strict-liability rule for the owners of vehicles involved, for council staff to increase the low number of prosecutions, and for the public to dob in dumpers.

I’ve had a gutsful of those who think they can just dump their rubbish on the side of the road instead of using...

Posted by Phil Goff on Tuesday, 16 January 2018

At today's Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board-supported event at Flinders Pl Reserve, Goff spoke with residents and members of the Compost Collective, Pacific Vision Aotearoa and Love Food Hate Waste, who ran workshops.

He also helped volunteers sort inorganic waste being dropped off.

"It's great to see the community coming together like this to combat a serious issue. The impacts are huge for the people who live in areas that suffer from regular illegal dumping," he said.

"We all need to take responsibility for our own waste and make sure we're vigilant about reporting it to council when we see rubbish in the wrong place."