Campaigns to discourage tourists from fouling up some of the country's most picturesque places will struggle as long as Kiwis are "dumb enough" to let visitors get away with it, a committee has heard.

The Upper Waitaki Zone Committee was told it will cost about $10,000 to install three "Love Your Lakes" signs on roads leading to the upper Waitaki lakes region as part of an effort to encourage people to remove their rubbish.

Committee member Richard Subtil says that sum is "preposterous". Subtil said he recently visited a river-side site that was popular with freedom campers and saw excrement and toilet paper under "every" tussock and bush.



He asked a German tourist at the site whether tourists would behave the same way in her home country. The woman said no, that it was disgusting, but that New Zealanders were "dumb enough" to let them get away with it.

CHRIS HYDE/FAIRFAX NZ Rubbish left behind at a popular freedom camping spot near Lake Tekapo.

Subtil told the committee meeting on Friday that he understood the campaign sought to address issues locals were "hot under the collar about" but he was not convinced new signs would have the desired effect.

Environment Canterbury communications advisor Phil Roberts, who reported on the campaign, said there were no guarantees the new signs would work to prevent all tourists from soiling the environment.

They were, however, one way of encouraging tourists to do the right thing, he said.

Committee member Simon Cameron suggested the material be produced in languages other than English, though Subtil suggested most freedom campers were from Europe and could read and understand the language.

​Committee member Mathew Bayliss said it was "nearly impossible" to prosecute people for rubbish dumping. The Love Your Lakes campaign was a good idea but the signs themselves would stand in contrast to their environment.

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​Roberts said the signs would be more effective if placed where the littering behaviour happened. Finding landowners near the main arterial routes, who were happy to have signs erected on their land, would be cheaper than erecting them roadside, he added.

A few committee members agreed to try to find some landowners who would be happy to have a sign on their property.

The Love Your Lakes campaign began prior to Christmas as part of the Upper Waitaki Zone Implementation Programme. Stickers and posters were distributed around key visitor spots to try and educate tourists to use public toilets and to take their rubbish with them.

Roadside signs were being investigated as the next step, but gaining permission to erect signage on state highways was complex, Roberts said.

The committee would need to work with New Zealand Transport Agency and the relevant territorial authority, both of which had their own requirements relating to where signs can go, how big they could be and even how many words they displayed.

The signs would be erected at the three entrance ways into the Upper Waitaki and hopefully catch the attention of tourists travelling on the inland tourist route, where local councils continue to grapple with fouling visitors.

Waitaki District councillors have raised the prospect of a bylaw to better manage freedom camping after complaints about mess.

Mackenzie District has just closed a freedom camping site amid concerns about the land being used as a toilet and pending public consultation on the district's freedom camping strategy next month.

Tekapo community board member Stella Sweney last month urged cabinet ministers and MPs to take action: the government needed to take the "free out of freedom camping", she said.