A Westport man fed up with dumped rubbish piling up near a local beach has gone on a clean-up mission, clearing more than eight tonnes of steel in a couple of months.
By Rachel Graham of RNZ
Danny Hakaraia took action after seeing growing piles of rubbish on private land while on regular dog walks around North Beach.
He said the worst spots were along a secluded road that leads to Westport's refuse station.
"It just felt heart breaking to see that on our beach and it was just getting worse. People's household rubbish that people were dumping there and piles of steel," he said.
Hakaraia said there were about 20 to 30 individual dump spots, many of which had been set alight, and about 12 burnt-out cars.
In total, he collected about eight to 10 tonnes of steel.
Hakaraia said he had been storing the steel in his driveway while he worked out the best way to get it to the tip.
He approached the Buller District Council for help with dumping fees and it has now agreed to waive them for the items he clears from the beach.
While some people believed items were illegally dumped because of the cost, Hakaraia said some could be sorted and recycled for free, and some of the metal could be sold to scrap dealers.
"Before I picked up the steel I picked up 350 kilos of aluminium and that was two wool fadges of aluminium cans, some boat motor, aluminium car motors and took it to the Hokitika recycle centre and got $280, which sort of covered my gas for the first couple of weeks of working on the beach," he said.
Hakaraia suspected that laziness drove most people to illegally dump rubbish on public land.
He recently met the council to update staff on his project and to ask for changes to reduce dumping in future.
Hakaraia wants cameras in the area, more patrols by council rangers or gates to block access to some areas.
He is also calling for one day per year when people can put hard rubbish out for free kerbside collection.
Council group manager regulatory services Simon Bastion said staff commended Hakaraia for his dedication to the clean-up work.
"Fly tipping is becoming a real issue within the Buller district and it is the ratepayer that ends up carrying the bill for clean-up activity," he said.
Bastion said the council and its transfer station contractor Smart Environmental had agreed to cover the cost of disposing of waste collected by Hakaraia.
"Council staff attend where possible to ensure fly tipping is acted on however we have limited resources and funding to undertake that activity," he said.
Hakaraia was keen to continue the work until the whole area had been cleaned up and people could again use the space for recreation.
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