It’s a rubbish job, but someone’s got to do it….
A rubbish pit on a Golden Bay farm. Claire asks, “Who has their home drinking water coming from downstream of this?”
Talking tough about trash is the job of Claire Webster, on contract to TDC as their environmental educator and enviroschools facilitator in Golden Bay. Her photos catalogue sorry scenes of dumped and burnt messes - in inlets, on farms and around Takaka - to show that some old habits die hard.
"Dumping like this is like stealing. Someone else pays-it's never free," says Claire. "A few years ago people used to routinely throw their trash into the local stream or river; now most of us agree this is not an acceptable practice anymore. Yet the rubbish pit that can still be found on some farms is much the same because leachates get into the groundwater, and we leave the solid mess for our grandchildren to solve. Many plastics take up to 500 years to break down. It's time to get responsible."
If only it were that simple. Golden Bay continues to generate rubbish like never before. Virtually all of it has to be trucked out over the hill, even the green waste, an astonishing 641 cubic metres of it last year, because it's "uneconomical" to make compost here, Claire said.
Getting people to compost is a good start. The inlet and coastal dumping of garden waste is still common practice in Golden Bay. Green waste even makes up about 45 per cent of an average household's rubbish bag. Council supplies information brochures about composting, bokashi (a very effective fermenting method) and worm farming, and will give you a $15 discount voucher for purchasing a compost bin or worm farm from listed retailers.
Some property owners have already taken up the opportunity to import fertility to their sections. Derry Kingston at Ligar Bay has invited his neighbours to dump their garden waste on his property, which he then dries and recycles back into his garden.
Claire says the practice of burning rubbish is still an issue in Golden Bay, with black smoke being the dead giveaway that there's more in it than dry vegetation and paper.
"Burning used to be a way of getting rid of waste, but we now know that the pollutants released are hazardous to health. Even damp or green vegetation and rubbish produces highly toxic gases. Breathing in small particles, typically less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10), can cause coughs, asthma symptoms, bronchitis and respiratory illness."
Specifically prohibited is the burning of trade waste, including plastic, materials associated with the recovery of metals from insulated electrical cables, motor vehicle components, rubber, tyres, batteries, waste oil, asbestos, treated timber and fibre board. You must have a permit from the rural fire officer (George Duff ph 525 9201) for any fire in the open air.
Interestingly, farmers can still legally burn their agricultural wrap (used for silage and hay) but this is likely to change in the near future as Agpac now has a recycling system set up for all farm plastics. Jeff Riordan (ph 525 9832) is the local contact for this. At present, empty agrichemical containers that have been triple rinsed can only be taken to Mariri or Richmond Resource Recovery Centres, but council has agreed to set up a collection place for Golden Bay this year.
Admits Claire: "We do appreciate it's a matter of setting up the recycle and recovery facilities before we can expect people to co-operate. Slowly but surely it's all happening."
Gerard Hindmarsh
