Student zone furniture dumping rife, Dunedin ratepayers picking up removals bill

Old sofas, armchairs, mattresses and other large items, discarded on North Dunedin streets, are being collected by the Dunedin City Council. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

Ratepayers are picking up the bill as the Dunedin City Council puts on extra services to remove large items of furniture discarded on some North Dunedin streets.

But whether those responsible for the mess were recently departed students, or landlords cleaning out otherwise empty flats over summer, is not clear.

An Otago Daily Times photographer visited the area on Thursday and found old sofas, armchairs, mattresses, plywood cupboards and other oversized items dumped on footpaths, waiting for collection.

Furniture has also been dumped outside the Salvation Army Family Store in Dunedin — despite pleas by the organisation for the public not to do that.

Ratepayers are footing the removals bill. Photos / Stephen Jaquiery

DCC infrastructure services general manager Simon Drew said yesterday the council was putting on extra collection services to deal with the mess.

It and the University of Otago were also working together to try to encourage "students, property owners and property managers" to remove rubbish in a responsible way.

That included extra recycling bins, rubbish collection days and skips in the area, to help recycle unwanted goods and ''tidy up the area'', he said.

A letter has also been sent to property owners and property managers by the DCC, reminding them of end-of-year services including the Rummage op shop at the Green Island landfill, he said.

They were also encouraged to help students remove unwanted rubbish by providing DCC rubbish bags, a trailer or a skip, he added.

University staff were not available for comment yesterday, but Otago Property Investors Association president Kathryn Seque doubted landlords and property managers were to blame.

Most of the rubbish had been on the street since December, when students left town, and the dumping of it highlighted the difficulty some students faced in getting to the landfill, she said.

"With the increased costs of rubbish removal, some of the students are just taking to dumping it, which is a really unfortunate situation in the student area at the moment.

"That's not an excuse for them at all to dump their rubbish outside, but when you've got no cars and got no trailers and got no way to take it to the actual landfill out in Green Island, it just ends up out on the street, unfortunately."

This article was first published in the Otago Daily Times.