More than $700,000 of ratepayer money went into solar-powered Big Belly bins that are now being dumped by Hauraki District Council.
By Jordan Smith of Local Democracy Reporting
The mayor says they were "not always reliable", but supplier Manco Environmental — which leased the bins out — denies any technical issues.
The bins were designed to alert staff when they were full, and optimise collection by compacting rubbish and saving labour costs.
Total spending on the bins reached $382,456 in 2023/24, more than $114,000 over budget and 51% attributed to labour costs. The capital cost of transition for new bins is approximately $334,905.
Council documents said the new rollout will save more than $100,000 by year two.
Cost was a defining factor, Hauraki District mayor Toby Adams said, with community misuse and health and safety concerns undermining savings also playing a role.
Adams described the bins as "not always reliable", referring to how they ended up being emptied daily and contributed to the astronomical price-tag.
"It didn't always work because you'd have a street where there might be five of those bins in one spot and one would them would go off and then they'll end up changing all five," Adams said.
It got less efficient not just because of the signals but also how council staff were managing it. "If they're up the main street they might as well be changing all of them, not just one of them."
Manco Environmental's product and business developmental manager Logan Black passionately denied any technological failure of the bins.
He said the reasoning falls to the "issues in their council processes and requirements" as well as alluding to how the council may not have been "fully utilising the software platform... to increase the efficiency of the solution".
He added Hauraki is an outlier in terms of the reasoning behind scrapping the bins, referring to how the product is used all over the country and internationally.
"Manco has tried to work with council both on costs and to guide them to actually utilise the system better and to the best of their capability,“ he said.
“That has to be done from an internal level or else why are you paying for these units? You may as well have a standard reciprocal that sits on the street that gives you no information [and] no data if you're not going to do it properly."
Referring to claims a fully loaded bin could serve as a health and safety risk for a staff member physically lifting rubbish out, Black said Manco had never received an injury-related query, adding the maximum load would weight approximately 20kg.
"I very much doubt that," Adams replied.
"I would say that staff have always discussed that with them and it's been a conversation piece... you want people that turn up to work and go home in the same condition that they turned up in."
Black referred to a statement he had received from the council, which highlighted the decision "was not a reflection on the quality of the Big Belly bins or the service provided by Manco". Rather, it described how "Hauraki's operating environment meant those efficiencies were not being fully realised" as well as how "operational costs" were major factors.
The statement further explained how the Big Bellies were set to only 50% capacity due to the weight of a full load, eliminating operational benefits.
Adams acknowledged the reference to community misuse saying people were "bringing their household rubbish and dumping it there". He added a one reason blame-game was not a wise way to view the situation.
"It's not about laying blame on any one thing. We looked at the overall aspects; the cost of the bins or whether a sensor went off or not but the overarching activity as a whole found it wasn't viable. It was a bunch of differing factors."
Both Adams and Black credited each other, with the former acknowledging the bin’s potential in other markets and the latter saying he’s "thoroughly enjoyed their relationship with Hauraki District Council".
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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