Pukehiki residents are taking action to save their new recycling depot, amid concerns the Dunedin City Council could shut it due to dumping of non-recyclable rubbish.
The council set up the trial depot for the community late last year.
It has been well used by the community but also by people using it to dispose of non-recyclable rubbish.
In the past few weeks residents have found household rubbish and farming items dumped in the depot's recycling bins. Some of the more unconventional items found included two cowboy hats, bird cages, and a set of badminton racquets.
The residents held a meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the abuse of the recycling centre. They discussed installing security cameras to keep an eye on the depot and running an awareness campaign to educate people on what could be put in the bins.
Pukehiki resident John Ware said residents had taken to removing non-recyclable rubbish themselves because they did not want the council to take away the recycling depot.
''Local people are very happy with it [the depot] here. We'd be very, very sorry to lose it,'' Mr Ware said. Receipts found in the rubbish showed some of the culprits lived locally but most
dumpers seemed to come from Dunedin or even as far away as Mosgiel.
Resident David Stevenson believed some of the local dumping might have been done by residents who were not familiar with recycling and did not realise the items they were disposing of could not be recycled.
For instance, some were putting their recycling in plastic shopping bags and then putting it all in the bins, not realising the plastic bags could not be recycled. City council solid waste manager Ian Featherston said there had been a lot of dumping of non-recyclable items at the depot and if it continued the council was likely to remove the depot.
He planned to give residents two or three more weeks to ''get things right'' before making a decision on the fate of the depot.
To find out more about what can and cannot be recycled at the Pukehiki depot visit www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/rubbish-and-recycling/community-recycling-f...
- by Jonathan Chilton-Towle
