Several rubbish bins are being removed in the Hauraki district, a report has revealed.
A review, tabled at the Hauraki District Council’s March 27 meeting, found the Parks and Reserves litter bin budget has increased year on year with continuous overspend.
Currently the council manages 100 litter bins, 60 of which are Big Belly Bins. The total expenditure for litter bin activity for the 2023/24 financial year was around $382,000 – nearly $114,000 over budget.
Of particular concern are the Big Belly Bins – while they were installed to reduce labour costs, the review found that they needed to be set to only 50 per cent capacity for health and safety reasons, to avoid the bin liners being too heavy for staff to safely lift and empty.
The review also cited misuse of public bins, with people regularly using them to dispose of household waste, and said kerbside recycling bins were regularly contaminated with regular rubbish and consequently sent to landfill.
“It’s a damn shame that we’ve gone to all this effort to put up bins for recycling and people are putting their normal rubbish in them,” Mayor Toby Adams said at the meeting.
“Public rubbish bins are not being used effectively – they have a huge price tag and it’s coming out of your rates and hence we’ve got to make some changes.”
Councillors approved recommendations to remove 13 Big Belly Bins completely; replace the others with either standard bins or ones with lids that do not open too wide; and replace 12 recycling bin units with standard bins. The changes are projected to save more than $100,000 per year.
Meanwhile, the council has also set its new dog fees for the 2025/26 financial year. Registration fees are remaining unchanged, however the impound fees have been increased for dogs which are unregistered. Councillors also agreed on an adoption fee of $50.
