More than 2000 rubbish bins removed around Auckland so far in cost-cutting exercise

This overflowing bin at Hobsonville was blamed on the removal of another. Photo / David Baker

More than 2000 rubbish bins have been removed from public places around Auckland as part of a cost-saving drive by the council.

Another approximately 500 will be removed before the end of May as part of Auckland Council’s bid to save around $9 million by scrapping less-used bins.

The project has been controversial, with some local board members, ratepayers and environmental groups complaining of overflowing bins and increased litter.

Council committed in last year’s budget to cutting some of the city’s 10,000 bins by around 30 per cent.

Officials said a large number of these bins were underused or contained little or no rubbish when contractors emptied them.

Head of Area Operations Parks and Community Facilities Julie Pickering said 2090 bins had been removed so far.

The project was expected to be completed by the end of May, reducing the total number of bins in public places to 7406.

The council last month outlined its criteria for which bins were being removed:

• Sites having a natural setting where users are more likely to pack in/pack out their rubbish for example bush parks, wetland parks.
• Low-use neighbourhood parks or low-use sections of parks
• Where bins are not co-located with other infrastructure in streetscape
• Where bins have been identified as historically under-utilised, meaning bins are often litter-less when contractors go to empty the bins.

Auckland Council’s manager of area operations Sandra May said at the time:

“We encourage people to dispose of their rubbish in a bin. If there is not a bin nearby, we encourage people to take rubbish home to dispose of it there.”

Four local board areas - Manurewa, Franklin, Papakura and Rodney - had chosen to pay to retain their public bins.

Some local board members distanced themselves from the council’s cost-saving exercise after fielding complaints, saying they had no say in which bins were being removed.

In Kaipatiki on the North Shore, local board chairman John Gillon announced stop-gap measures, saying the board had decided to fund some wheelie bins in wooden frames to replace some of the lost bins in high-use areas of parks.

INCREASE IN LITTER

A brief Herald social media survey of community groups around Tāmāki Makaurau last month showed widespread and passionate opposition to the bins’ removal.

In the scenic Hibiscus Coast, a foul odour betrays the beachside beauty of Ōrewa’s Western Reserve.

The area is popular with dog walkers and hosts over 100 dogs and their owners for training every Monday.

Removal of multiple bins around the reserve has locals seeing red and warning of remaining bins overflowing with faeces.

“I’ve already seen an increase in littering, breaks my heart,” another Hibiscus Coast resident said of the great bin cull.

In the genteel harbourside suburb of Devonport, locals shared Coasties’ concern over dog droppings.

The waterfront at Devonport now has fewer bins for dog poo, fish and chip wrappers - and everything else.

“Where have all the rubbish bins gone?” one irate local asked online.

“Do we now just throw our dog s*** and fish and chip wrappers into the sea?”

Another pointed out tourists may get caught short without a place to offload rubbish.

“What do the tourists use? Take it back to the cruise ship? Throw it in the harbour?” they asked.

“Council rates in Devonport are circa $6000, can’t we have bins?”

One West Aucklander said the move was “definitely stupid” and elsewhere in the west, locals were breaking down the rubbish situation with scientific precision.

“I am left wondering whether the Whau Local Board or Auckland Council officials have ever eaten a pie or consumed a can of fizzy drink in their lives!” former school principal and local Avondale campaigner Jason Valentine-Burt asked after bins were removed near the suburb’s schools.

“They have left some rubbish bins outside a few dairies and bakeries, but removed the bins that any time and motion study observation would tell you that a pie wrapper or drink can actually gets finished with.

“The majority of students are not going to then carry that rubbish the rest of the way to school and put it in a rubbish bin in the school grounds. They are simply not.”

Bins removed near wharves in Murrays Bay and West Harbour saw locals complain of competing olfactory offence with dumped bait bags and dog poo getting up locals’ noses.

One concerned West Harbourite even marked the removal of a bin with a memorial.

Another bin bites the dust!

“This is now a grave of what was a perfectly useful and well-placed rubbish bin,” the resident wrote.

“So do we take our dog poo bags home or maybe just put it on the bin grave as compost?

“We ignore the fish hooks laying around on the grass? Throw the bait bags in the bush?”

“Watch the mess appear. Madness.”