Keeping New Zealand Beautiful… together

A massive 6.2 tons of rubbish, 72 tyres and a number of white ware items that were sent for scrap metal were lugged out of South Waikato forests from access roads and gates during Keep New Zealand Beautiful week in September.

Initiated by Hancock Forest Management (HFM), the clean-up involved many of its forestry crews and contractors.

The BR Logging Crew 3 filled two ute loads and had this to say, “A massive effort for the Kinleith clean-up. We started from the entry to Access Road by SH32 and went down to the road on the right. We left with two chocka ute loads. It’s not perfect, but a massive improvement by the boys.”

“Our forests and their public access roads are the offices of our forestry crews. They are not a dump site. Let’s respect these work spaces and recreational areas,” said HFM Environmental Forester, Sarah-Jane Luoni, who spearheaded the clean-up.

HFM was established in 2004 to manage forests on behalf of Hancock Natural Resource Group’s clients. It currently manages 235,000 hectares of plantation forests located around the north island, with just about half of its forests in the centraI north island region.

HFM NZ is strongly committed to providing a safe working environment and to being good stewards of the environment.

Council applauds the initiative of Hancock and its contractors and was very keen to support this initiative.

“I was very happy to support this initiative by funding the landfill fees through a Mayoral Grant,” said Mayor Jenny Shattock. “We all need to respect our beautiful environment. Council encourages people to dispose of waste responsibly.”

Appreciation and thanks must also go to DG Waste, Council’s landfill management contractor, that opened up the landfill on a Monday when it is normally closed, at its own cost, so that Hancock could drop the 6.2 tons off outside of public hours.

Let’s Keep New Zealand Beautiful… it’s everyone’s responsibility.

ENDS. Words: 318