Litter baskets capture stormwater trash

Items of rubbish are being stopped from entering Nelson’s waterways thanks to a new litter basket trial.

The trial has seen Nelson City Council place litter baskets in four locations in the Nelson city centre.

Items such as plastic drinking straw wrappers, shopping receipts and tree leaves are some of the items caught by the traps so far.

Group manager infrastructure Alec Louverdis says council is investigating ways to improve the water quality from the stormwater network prior to discharging into our streams, rivers and the coastline.

The aim of the trial is to understand how well these litter baskets perform at catching pollutants, including heavy metals, petrochemicals, microplastics and general litter.

Alec says the litter baskets, which are retrofitted into road sumps, have been placed at four locations, each with its unique environment such as a heavily trafficked road, a low trafficked road, a pedestrian walkway and a car park.

He says the aim of the trial locations is to better understand how these baskets perform within each of these environments, as the source and concentration of pollutants will vary.

The first round of sampling has been completed and initial results show a variety of contaminants including arsenic, copper, zinc, nickel, total hydrocarbons, microplastics and large litter materials are being captured.

Over the next year, council will collate the information and use it to assist in developing a more comprehensive plan.

This will include  the suitability and preferred locations of the litter basket devices and to determine ongoing maintenance costs.