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Rubbish dumped near the Clutha River has concerned a Balclutha resident who fears some of the waste could be toxic.

The rubbish is strewn around a former gravel-dredging area by the Clutha River, off Barnego Rd on the outskirts of Balclutha. When the Otago Daily Times visited the site there was a washing machine, five containers labelled as agricultural products, sheep remains, and household waste among the rubbish dumped on gravel and in the grass.

The Balclutha man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he was concerned about the contents of five containers, which possibly contained drench or another agricultural product.

''I have no idea what is in there. It could be something toxic. We're right beside the river.''

He came across the rubbish three weeks ago, and contacted the Clutha District Council with his concerns. He said he was then told to contact the Otago Regional Council.

Clutha District Council planning and environment manager Murray Brass said the Litter Act made it illegal for anyone to deposit rubbish of any kind on to land without approval of the landowner. If the land was not privately owned, the dumped rubbish was breaching the council's bylaws.

While he was unsure if the land was public or privately owned, council staff would visit the area today or tomorrow.

''When we can trace the rubbish we can issue fines, or in more serious cases we can prosecute.''

In 2008, the council introduced a new bylaw with a two-tier infringement system for those caught littering. Small to medium cases of littering can result in instant fines of either $100 or $400, while major cases go before the courts.

The council successfully prosecuted a man in 2008 for dumping rubbish near Clinton. He was convicted and fined $1000 and ordered to pay $101 reparation after dumping a trailer-load of rubbish at a layby in September 2007.

Mr Brass asked the public to report vehicle registrations or other identifying details if people were suspected of illegally dumping rubbish.

- helena.dereus@odt.co.nz

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Rubbish dumped near the Clutha River has concerned a Balclutha resident who fears some of the waste could be toxic. The rubbish is strewn around a former gravel-dredging area by the Clutha River, off Barnego Rd on the outskirts of Balclutha.

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New Zealand lacks leadership on recycling and companies that use a lot of packaging need to take charge of their environmental footprints, a community recycling advocate says.

Gina Dempster, who works with the community recycling initiative, Wanaka Wastebusters, told Nine to Noon that on an individual level, New Zealanders were doing fairly well in terms of recycling.

The most room for improvement was at government and corporate levels, and New Zealand could look overseas for inspiration.

"In the UK, they've recently brought in a charge of 5 pence per [plastic] bag, and that's shown to have a massive decrease in the amount of plastic bags that are used - 85 percent. But we're really lacking a national leadership on waste at the moment, and that's why we're slipping behind.

Not all councils separated glass from other recycling, and Ms Dempster said that order needed to come from the top.

"If glass is collected with the other materials, it becomes very difficult to recycle back into bottles. If your council has set up a separate collection for glass, then it can go up to Auckland and be recycled back into bottles."

"We're really lacking a kind of national leadership on waste at the moment, and that's why we're slipping behind".

Corporations which used excessive packaging - such as individually wrapped prunes - also bore responsibility for their environmental footprint.

"There is quite a movement towards an advance disposal fee ... that would link companies to the packaging that they make, and to the cost of disposing of that packaging. And that would be a great thing, because it would really get them to think about packaging, and about the options that they have."

Auckland Council waste planning manager Parul Sood said the biggest issue with personal recycling in New Zealand's largest city was contamination.

"Contamination with food, or nappies - I don't know why people put them in, but they do - and also plastic bags. Plastic bags are a big no-no for the facility because they get entangled in the machinery ... definitely we do not want plastic bags."

Ms Sood said that included both grocery bags and packaging, such as empty chip packets.

She encouraged companies to be environmentally conscious, and open to progressive ideas.

"There are companies that look at packaging and say, 'how can we do this better?' And they come and ask our recyclers and say, 'what can we do so that this packaging can be recycled?' So [we should get] companies thinking at a design level."
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How much of our kerbside recycling actually gets recycled, and what can we do to improve this? What ends up as landfill often depends on things like contamination, sorting, whether lids are on or off and the type of materials a council has elected to recycle.