Wollongong City Council needs to act on the "massive problem" of waffle pods, according to councillor Cath Blakey.
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Waffle pods are used on building sites underneath a concrete slab.
Because they are made of polystyrene they can easily blow off site in strong winds; which happened recently at housing developments at West Dapto and Wongawilli.
Pieces of the pods ended up in bushland as well as creeks and other waterways.
Some also ended up on a Wongawilli farm; if eaten by the cattle on the farm, they would have died.
Cr Blakey has put forward a notice of motion on the issue, to be heard at Monday night's Wollongong City Council meeting.
"It's a massive problem and every time the wind blows, it reasserts itself," Cr Blakey said.
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"It's become really evident that it's a problem at Wongawilli. But Wongawilli isn't the only development site that's using these waffle pods. It's probably happening in lots of places."
It's a massive problem and every time the wind blows, it reasserts itself.
- Wollongong City councillor Cath Blakey on the problem of waffle pods blowing off building sites
Her notice of motion includes calling on council to write to several NSW government ministers requesting a compulsory code of practice for the storage and use of waffle pods.
At present, the code is voluntary and Cr Blakey felt the method used to restrain them was not good enough.
"They're just pin-down nets," she said.
"There's footage that shows when there's high winds, the styrofoam just blows straight out of those nets. Sometimes even those nets blow away. And the nets are just as much of a environmental hazard, if not even more, than the styrofoam."
Cr Blakey also wanted to see the fines for non-compliance significantly increased.
However, she acknowledged that fining developers when waffle pods blowing off-site was problematic.
"It is challenging for council to fine people," she said.
"If there is a pollution incident, once the stuff is off a building site it's hard to know which building site it came from. Then, if they've followed the guidelines on how it should be contained and it's happened anyway, there's no intent shown.
"Securing a prosecution is challenging in this space - that's partly why we need to see the code of practice tightened up and become compulsory."