Opinion: Free Pile

By Justine Marshall

I was showing some overseas visitors our lovely village recently and
they asked about the rubbish dump that looks like a bus stop. We
stopped to take a look to get a photo as they likened it to something
you would see in a third world country.
In front of the bus stop we found broken down television sets and
large plastic bags of rolled up newspapers, no doubt leftovers from a
paper run.
I felt ashamed that at the very entrance to our clean, green community
there is an unsightly monument to Waitati, which in theory, is a
recycling facility, but in reality doubles as a rubbish depository for
passers-by.
I am not opposed to a local recycling facility that is properly
managed, under cover and contains those things which can be given to
people who can on-use them. So, I would like to open the discussion as
to what can be done.