People who dump household or business rubbish in council litter bins face a crackdown by the Waitaki District Council under a new bylaw which came into force on Wednesday.
The council yesterday formally adopted the Waitaki Solid Waste Bylaw after considering public submissions to the draft bylaw that went out for consultation in September.
The bylaw allows the council to prosecute offenders through the court system.
Solid waste officer Gerry O'Neill said that although the bylaw covered a range of waste issues, the issue of litter bins is of particular public interest.
"We've had numerous complaints over the years about people using public litter bins to dispose of their household or business waste.
This bylaw now gives us the tools to do something about it," he said.
A small number of people using public litter bins to dispose of their household or business waste, while everyone else paid for waste disposal, was unfair, he said.
"This misuse of litter bins costs ratepayers more because our contractors spend extra time emptying bins containing waste that shouldn't be there.
And it's frustrating that a lot of what's put in there could easily be recycled."
Mr O'Neill hoped that people who used the bins for household or business waste would now do the right thing and use the bins for litter only, as intended.
