Whanganui council's litter boss shrugs shoulders at illegal dumpers

The head of Whanganui District Council's litter team says there are often few avenues go down to punish someone for illegal dumping.

On July 14, Karl Fulton and his family came across a pile of dumped rubbish in the water and on the shore at Castlecliff Beach and cleaned it up themselves.

While it was a shock to many, it's also been described as a regular occurrence around Whanganui.

Clive Whitham, who is a compliance officer at Whanganui District Council, also leads the litter team to clean up when illegal dumpings are reported.

Clive Whitham leads Whanganui District Council's litter team on cleanup jobs when someone illegally dumps and he says it's often very difficult to punish the offenders.

He said one of the first things they do is look for addresses or names in the rubbish.

"Then we visit, have a chat and we try to locate who's done it. Most will deny any knowledge of it and unless there's witnesses, we're buggered.

"We have to infringe [fine] the person who dumped the rubbish, not the name in the rubbish."

When asked about last week's incident at Castlecliff Beach, he said unless the perpetrator was seen dumping the rubbish, there's often little that can be done.

"Where was the rego number?

"There was a description of the vehicle ... where was the rego number? How do we track the guy.

"We can't prove the vehicle they saw dumped the rubbish."

But he said even if they do catch the guilty party dumping, punishment is often diluted.

"Prosecutions are too expensive. Cost you probably $1500-2000 in legal fees to get a $200 fine.

"We did one last week, we got the guy ... but then is he going to pay it? Are the courts going to pursue that debt? That's the problem."

Whitham said the cost of taking rubbish to the landfill was working as an incentive for many to illegally dump.

"That's something that really needs to be looked at. You've got a minimum charge now for a trailer load, irrespective what's on it.

"That's crazy ... there shouldn't be a minimum charge. It's the cost of disposal that's the biggest problem."

Whitham was part of a discussion held at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre on Fiday alongside the council's waste adviser, Stuart Hylton.

Hylton said the council was surveying the public over bringing in kerbside recycling with rubbish pickup.

At the moment only a portion of residents take their recycling to the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre, he said.

"There is 10-15 per cent of the population ... that will come and do it and drop it off at the centre.

"But we know that if we've got kerbside [recycling] there'd be two to three times as many people [recycling]. And it's a convenience thing that kerbside brings."

Hylton said the problem with kerbside recycling was that the items sent through were often dirty whereas what people brought to the centre was good, clean product.