The Council last year mounted a free collection service to clean up hazardous wastes and unwanted agricultural chemicals as part of a national campaign launched by the Ministry for the Environment.
Regional Council Waste Management Team Leader Jerry Nelson says last year’s successful August trial netted more than two tonnes of hazardous agrichemicals from the Kaipara, some of which had been banned in New Zealand for decades.
The haul included 1.5 tonnes collected in a single day from the rural Dargaville area, surprising Regional Council staff who had expected to collect 200 kilogrammes at most.
Mr Nelson says the Council will hold collections at five Kaipara sites over a fortnight next month, beginning with a collection at the Dargaville Transfer Station in Awakino Rd on Monday 14 November and ending at the Mangawhai police Station on Monday 28 November.
Each collection will run from 9.30am to 3pm and Mr Nelson expects that once again, it will yield more long-banned chemicals.
He says the chemicals the Council is keen to collect can pose environmental and human/animal health risks, especially if stored in leaking, damaged or unlabelled containers. Other substances to be collected include old, unwanted, or unidentifiable agrichemicals, dairy shed cleaners, animal treatments and empty containers.
“We’ll just be pleased to get these things out of the environment. Some of them are lethal and not the sort of stuff you want hanging around.’’
Mr Nelson says the collection DOES NOT include explosives, infectious substances, radioactive wastes, waste oil, paint, vehicle batteries and general household or farm wastes.
Mr Nelson says property owners who have large (100kg-plus) quantities of chemicals, or containers that are unsafe or deteriorating should contact the Council to arrange to have the chemicals collected, rather than risk moving them themselves.
The Council is using a specially modified Mitsubishi L300 van – the ‘HazMobile’ – to transport collected chemicals to Whangarei for storage and repackaging. From Whangarei, the chemicals are sent to Auckland where the Ministry for the Environment arranges final disposal.
This ranges from export for high temperature incineration, to being rendered chemically inert and being disposed of in New Zealand.
Mr Nelson can be contacted on (0800) 002 004.