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The Northland Regional Council 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 in partnership with regional councils last year.

Regional Council Waste Management Team Leader Jerry Nelson says the collection yielded some chemicals that have been banned for many years.

“We’re just pleased to have them out of the environment,’’ he said.

Included in the haul were 40 litres of PCP (Pentachlorophenol), which was an anti-sap staining material used in the timber industry and banned in 1990, arsenic-based sheep dip banned in the 1970s, and phosphorus paste and cyanide that had long passed its use-by date.

Most of the chemicals brought into the collection depots were horticultural and agricultural chemicals that had once been popular insecticides for insect pests such as crickets and grass grubs.

“It’s pretty lethal stuff – chemicals like Malathion, Paraquat, DDT and Dichlorvos are not the type of thing you want hanging around.’’

The Northland leg of the campaign began in August last year with a successful trial that saw Northland Regional Council staff collect several tonnes of unwanted chemicals from the Kaipara area. The collection expanded into the Far North District in November and December, netting another 1.5 tonnes of chemicals.

Mr Nelson says property owners who have missed the mobile collection and who have large 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.

Chemicals gathered during the collection will be disposed of by Ministry for the Environment.