Oropi locals are rallying together in efforts to keep their region clean.

After numerous dumpings of rubbish on rural roads, residents have had enough and are pushing back, says Oropi community member Tessa Rowe.

'The Oropi community looks out for each other and keep in contact through our community Facebook page. For all manner of things; from livestock on the loose, trees down, flooding, road conditions, to security and theft issues. We band together.”

After a recent dumping of a large amount of household rubbish in Pukemapu Road, several locals banded together and quickly identified a suspicious vehicle and reported it to the Council.

'The Council CCTV team have been helpful, they are restricted by the Privacy Act on what information they can release to the public, however, they could confirm that a vehicle matching the registration and description we gave them entered Oropi laden with rubbish, and 10 minutes later was leaving without the rubbish,” says Oropi local Terry Williams.

'The council cameras can recognise number plates and even facial recognition so my advice to anyone considering dumping rubbish is that even if you remove any identifying information from the rubbish, you will still be caught on several high definition cameras.

Council rubbish bins was amongst some of the rubbish dumped in Oropi.

'We privately located the address of the alleged offenders and, along with the police, paid them a visit.

'Despite initial denials they finally accepted the overwhelming evidence and admitted it was them.

'The police indicated that if they collected their rubbish and took it to the dump then the issue may be deescalated, the alleged offenders agreed to do so, but they never turned up.

'What is crazy is that about 30 per cent of the load was metal filing cabinets, metal chairs, old bikes etc which can be recycled for free, they literally drove past two metal recyclers on their way to Oropi,” says Terry.

'However, there were also numerous bags of soiled nappies that were slipping down the bank into the Pukemapu river which feeds the Tauranga water supply, so we decided to load it all up and return it to them.

'The call went out and within minutes people were there to help, if we waited any longer I think we would have had over 100 locals turn up.

'There were a couple of people in the house when we arrived so we knocked on the door however they did not respond, so eight of us unloaded it on to their front lawn whilst they peeked behind curtains from the upstairs window.”

Metal filing cabinets were also dumped in Oropi.

Terry has some words of advice.

'It is important to note neither the council or police condone people taking the law into their own hands, everyone kept calm and we had agreed that if it escalated we would abandon returning the rubbish and take it to the dump ourselves.

'It was really good to drive past the dumping site and see it looking all clean again and I'm pleased to say the Council Compliance Team have been in touch, they continue to follow up the incident with the intent of issuing several $500 fines.”

Terry hopes that this decisive action will send a message to those who think they can get away with illegal dumping of rubbish.

'Firstly remember to smile for the cameras, but more importantly, enough is enough.

'Our paradise is not your dumping ground.”