Rubbish loads keeps garbos on their toes

While most of us put our feet up and relax over the holidays, staff at Mason Contractors have been working twice as hard.

Manager Graeme Bell says the amount of rubbish picked up from roadside collections at this time of year is about four times the normal amount.

“We have an extra truck on the road, pull in staff from other duties and work 10 and 11 hour days,” he says. “The three weeks after Christmas are always the busiest and a twice-weekly service will operate at Omaha until the end of January to meet demand in that area.”

Mr Bell says the introduction of recycling bins at Auckland Regional Parks has been very successful. In December alone, more than 700 tonnes of recyclables were collected.

He says on the whole, people have been “pretty good”, but said it helped if:
• Householders made themselves aware of the holiday collection dates
• Only put their rubbish bags out on the day of the collection.