Bins at Rotorua's Blue Lake were removed in 2023. Photo / Laura Smith
Every morning, the staff at the Rotorua Blue Lake TOP 10 Holiday Park collect a bag of rubbish from the lakefront carpark.
Rotorua Lakes Council removed the public bins from Blue Lake (Tikitapu) in March 2023 and said at the time it was to deter wasps and was on a trial basis.
Now, the holiday park’s operations manager, Kelsi Hira, said the council should take responsibility for the rubbish her team collects daily and reinstate the bins.
She believes the problem will get worse over summer.
“We’re taking it out of the water, too.“
While the council said it removed the bins for a wasp problem and encouraged people to take home their rubbish, Hira believed it was because it did not want the expense of emptying the bins at the lake.
She believed if it was really about waste minimisation and encouraging people to take their rubbish away then other places, such as the Rotorua Lakefront, would not have bins either.
Hira said the Blue Lake was arguably just as popular with visitors as the Lakefront was but, in her view, the council did not take the same pride with Tikitapu.
In her opinion: “It’s 100% cost-driven.“
She said the cost of cleaning up was falling on the holiday park because its bins were filled instead.
“We let them … better to go in a bin than the alternative.
“Just annoying we pay for that.”
Waste that staff collected included takeout rubbish. Used nappies were another common find.
It was embarrassing having people come to the area and see that, she said.
“We are very aware of the privilege we have being in an area like this and what will happen to a lake like ours if it becomes polluted.
“We want to respect the place we have got.“
She did not feel that the council was listening to her concerns when she made contact through social media.
The council later told Local Democracy Reporting, that under its social media policy, people who have a problem to report need to contact its customer service team by phone or email so a request for service can be logged and “the matter can be resolved appropriately”.
Hira did not believe people would report seeing the uncollected rubbish to the council and so it would not have complaints.
She wanted the bins to be reinstated, have more of them than before and for them to be serviced the same as at the town’s Lakefront.
She did not think wasps would be an issue since the council had traps put up, as she had at the park.
Council waste and climate change manager Craig Goodwin said there were 11 rubbish-related callouts in the past year. Five were from the public and the rest from staff and contractors in the area.
Goodwin said the park had not contacted the council about its concerns but he would “be happy to discuss this with them if they wish”.
The council’s expectation was for the public to take responsibility for their rubbish and where there were no bins to take it home with them or to transfer stations.
“While it is not our expectation that people pick up others’ rubbish in public spaces, we are very appreciative of those in the community who do help to keep our spaces and our local environment clean and tidy on a voluntary basis.
“We work with people and groups that do this regularly and can provide the likes of bags and gloves.”
He said council staff and contractors in reserves, including Tikitapu, cleaned up when working.
“These patrols increase during the summer months.”
Misuse of public litter bins has increased over the years, he said, including at the Blue Lake, with illegal dumping of household and business waste.
“The removal of bins in popular reserves is becoming more common around New Zealand.
“In Auckland, all regional parks operate on a ‘take your rubbish with you’ policy and it is our understanding this has worked well and is strongly supported by the public.”
Other areas in the district did not have bins and “rubbish is not an issue”. These included Te Pūtake o Tawa, the Mountain Bike Hub near Tikitapu, “which is a destination hotspot with hundreds passing through each week”.
“We know that our community - and visitors to our district - place a high value on our lakes, forest and green spaces and in general care about the environment and keeping it looking great for generations to come.”
Questions unanswered included whether the impact on businesses was considered when the bins were removed and whether the impact on visitor perception was considered.
The council also did not answer how often the bins were serviced before removal or the cost.
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist since 2019.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
