Techno bins prove a flop in Hauraki District
Friday, 11 April 2025
A suite of solar-powered bins that say when they’re meant to be emptied are being scrapped in the Hauraki District.
The Big Belly bins were “in theory a great initiative” but had failed to deliver promised savings, a review found.
Budget pressures were the main reason for the review, though the Hauraki District Council also reported issues with fly tipping and rubbish being put in recycling bins.
At the council’s March meeting, wider rubbish changes were also voted on, including the purchase of a garbage truck and the removal of 12 recycling bin units that were on trial.
Making the suite of changes means just under $335,000 in unbudgeted capital spending.
It was “a damn shame” that people continued to put rubbish into recycling bins that the council had worked to set up, mayor Toby Adams said.
Recycling was often so contaminated it had to go to landfill.
People were also putting their household rubbish into the public Big Belly bins.
“They have a huge price tag and it’s coming out of your rates, hence we’ve got to make some changes”, he said in a statement.
Big Belly bins make up 60 of the district’s approximately 100 public rubbish bins and 'are in theory a great initiative to reduce labour costs and CO₂ emissions,” a report from waste manager Renee Wentzel said.
They compact rubbish and send alerts when full, but staff found the alerts unreliable and still ended up servicing them daily.
What’s more, “we have to set the bins to 50% efficiency in order to ensure that our team can lift the bin liners without it being too heavy”.
“The net effect of the situation is that … the benefits of the Big Belly Bin technology was negated,” the report said.
The rubbish service has regularly been over budget, with the largest overspend in recent years being $162,170 in 2022/23, a report to councillors showed.
To keep using the Big Belly bins - currently on a month-by-month contract - would cost about $390,000 per year, including the lease, labour, and rubbish disposal, council documents said.
Instead, councillors went with the staff recommendation to get rid of them, and replace most with other kinds of bin.
Removing the Big Belly bins and installing the new ones will cost $60,000, while the new litter bin shells and inserts will cost almost $99,000.
Staff also want to buy a rear loader garbage truck worth almost $180,000 (excluding GST) to service these, and appoint a full-time employee, the report says.
“At present, this operation is a manual operation by different Works team members utilising a small truck/ute.”
The rubbish truck would also be used to clear up fly tipping and respond to some missed kerbside collections, the council said.
Staff estimate the changes would save about $100,000 in labour costs.
The funds would come from the council’s Recreation Reserves and Plant and Vehicle capital budgets for 2025/26.
What the council agreed to
* Remove 13 Big Belly bins completely (due to excessive misuse or under-utilised)
* Replace 49 street Big Belly bins with aluminium powder coated 2-way bin shell and standard 240L wheelie bin inserts.
* Replace 11 Big Belly bins located in Parks, Reserves and Sport grounds (beyond main centres and off main roads) with 240L wheelie bins on a litterbin stand that prohibits the lid to be lifted too wide.
* Procure a new rear loader garbage truck to service all district-wide public litter bins.
* Remove the existing litter bins from 1029 East Coast Rd, Kaiaua.
* Remove 12 recycling bin units (provided as a free trial from the Packaging Forum) and replace with aluminium powder coated 2-way bin shell and standard 240L wheelie bin inserts.
This story was sourced from official documents and generated using a bespoke AI tool overseen and checked by senior journalists.