AI cameras could help catch litterers in New Zealand

Wednesday, 1 January 2020

Critics have called for the Litter Act to be strengthened to make it easier for councils to issue fines after an offence. (First published in December 2019)

Only 12 people across New Zealand were convicted under the Litter Act in the last year, raising questions about whether the law still serves its purpose.

But cameras with built-in artificial intelligence to capture incidents of illegal rubbish dumping could potentially be the way to up the effectiveness of New Zealand's 'toothless' Litter Act.

'The Litter Act needs to be strengthened, in particular to make it easier for councils to issue fines after an offence,' Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) president Dave Cull said. It is not the first time LGNZ has expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the Act, which was last updated 40 years ago.

In the 2018-19 financial year, just 12 people were convicted under the Litter Act nationally.

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Local Government New Zealand president Dave Cull says changes need to be made to the Litter Act.

Seven of the 13 charges involved related to depositing litter in a public place, while the rest related to leaving litter in a private place without consent, the dumping of dangerous litter, or wilfully breaking glass in a public place.

Three of the convictions were recorded in the Southland region, with the rest scattered across Northland, Waitemata, South Auckland, Waiariki, East Coast, Manawatū, and the West Coast.

Councils can also fine people up to $400 for non-prosecutable littering, but rarely do.

In Auckland alone, litter clean-up costs almost $5 million a year, yet the council issued only 125 fines in 2016 and 91 in 2017. The Christchurch City Council issued just one infringement in 2016, two in 2017 and two in 2018, while Wellington did not issue a single infringement between November 2017 and August 2018.

A Members Bill to increase the maximum on-the-spot fine to $1000 failed at the second reading in March last year.

Children from a kindergarten in Belfast, Christchurch, enthusiastically grabbed gloves, buckets and tongs recently to help clean their neighbouring park after Keep Christchurch Beautiful paid an educational visit to the school.

At the time, Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said a higher fine would not address wider problems with the Litter Act.

A Christchurch City Council spokesperson said evidential challenges around establishing the identity of an offender limits the number of prosecutions that can be pursued.

'Nearly all of the complaints received arise after a member of the public has found litter that has already been dumped and there is limited evidence of the identity of the person responsible,' they said.

'[The] council could ask the government to change the Litter Act … [so] a litter control officer could issue an infringement notice where the officer has reasonable cause to believe that an offence has been committed by that person. This would remove the immediate timing aspect of the offence.'

Only 12 people were been convicted under the Litter Act nationally in the 2019-19 financial year. (File photo)

The spokesperson said the council had not given further consideration to pushing for legislative change at this stage though.

One possible solution to the challenge of having to catch offenders in the act, is using cameras with built-in artificial intelligence (AI). Canterbury Bankstown, a local authority in Australia, has recently been using this technology to capture people illegally dumping rubbish.

The Smart Cities team at the Christchurch City Council was set to meet with staff from Canterbury Bankstown before the end of 2019 to learn more about the technology and see if it could be applied in Christchurch.

Smart Christchurch manager Michael Healy earlier declined to elaborate on the details of the proposed AI-cameras until after the meeting with Canterbury Bankstown 'as the technology's suitability and capabilities are unknown'.

Stuff understands the technology works by using artificial intelligence software to detect illegal activity and notify council staff, saving them from having to comb through hours of footage to find incidents of interest.

Organisations like Keep New Zealand Beautiful work with communities, schools, businesses and councils to do regular cleanups all over NZ.

If the technology is deemed suitable for Christchurch, the council will look to trial it in the first half of this year.

Cull said amendments to the Litter Act and increasing the waste levy are just a couple of the changes that New Zealand needs.

The Government announced plans in November to raise the cost of dumping construction and industrial waste, while household waste bills could also rise if regional authorities passed on planned increases. The proposal, which could earn the Government up to $250 million a year, is open to public feedback until February 3 and a decision is expected in mid-2020.

'We need to ensure that additional levies are specifically put towards solving our waste problem, and don't disappear into the Government's general revenue stream,' Cull said.

'That means ring-fencing the fund, and putting together a national waste strategy to ensure that they are strategically invested in onshore processing capacity at scale. We also need to phase in any levy increase over time.'

LGNZ is also pushing for mandatory product stewardship, which it believes will help reduce littering by building in costs and plans for problem waste such as tyres and electronics.

Cull said LGNZ is in talks with the Ministry for the Environment about strengthening the Litter Act. 'This is just one piece of the puzzle. We need to adopt a nationwide, strategic approach to waste and recyclables. Education and more facilities are equally as important.'