Farm ‘tip’ gets cleaned up

By Paul Dunlop
CONTRACTORS have helped to clean up building site rubbish that an angry Pakenham farmer said had turned his paddocks into a tip.
Workers spent last Wednesday collecting chunks of polystyrene foam, known as waffle pods, that had blown onto Andre Haakman’s farm.
The workers, from Hallambased company Procon, admitted it was possible they had supplied at least some of the dozens of foam blocks that had blown over from building sites on the nearby Lakeside at Pakenham estate.
But Procon general manager Peter Hodges, who paid a visit to Mr Haakman’s farm after a report highlighting the issue in last week’s Gazette, said it was unfair to point the finger at individual suppliers.
He said the rubbish was “everybody’s problem”.
Mr Hodges said he had sent staff to help clean up to emphasise that most people in the building industry tried to do the right thing in terms of preventing rubbish from blowing away from construction sites.
“The building industry gets a bad rap, but the message I wanted to send is that we do care,” Mr Hodges said.
“We were out there on Wednesday as soon as we became aware of the situation. I don’t even know if these are our pods.
“We work for quite a few different builders, supplying the pods and mostly they are kept tied down, but if you get winds like we did last week there is not much you can do.
“Days like last Tuesday, with winds that take the roof off a house, you haven’t got a hope in hell.” As previously reported, Mr Haakman said his 135acres farm in Cardinia Road had borne the brunt of rubbish blowing over from building sites.
Mr Haakman said he appreciated the efforts of Procon workers in cleaning up the foam blocks, which were used to help build concrete slabs, but was more concerned about the smaller chunks and other debris that had broken up and were spread around his property.
“It’s poison for my animals and the smaller the stuff the more dangerous it is,” he said.
Mr Haakman said he had recently lost two calves that he suspected had died after eating bits of plastic bags or other rubbish.
Mr Hodges said it was impossible to pick up the smaller pieces of rubbish but emphasised his company did what it could.
He said Procon prided itself on its efforts to ensure rubbish was kept to a minimum and did not spread. “We’ve all got to do our bit for the environment,” Mr Hodges said.
“We have got a polystyrene recycling unit with dedicated staff who spend all their time collecting pods to make sure they don’t blow away. It’s something we take very seriously.”
Cardinia Shire Council has taken steps to control rubbish escaping from building sites by tightening local laws.
Council’s manager of governance and communications, Doug Evans, said most builders did the right think but the few that didn’t were creating a problem.
He said that with up to 1400 active building sites throughout the shire at any given time, it was impossible for the council to patrol all of the them, but officers did their best to address the issue.
Mr Evans said it appeared the pods all came from the one site.