Coromandel rubbish machines accept bigger bags at a higher price

A Thames-Coromandel District Council portable rubbish compactor.

Compacting rubbish machines in the Coromandel are being overloaded and misused, causing them to malfunction.

A spokesperson for Thames-Coromandel District Council (TCDC) said people had been putting up to four bags of rubbish in the hoppers but the compacting mechanism could only handle one 60-litre bag at a time.

There had also been instances where lengths of pipe and building materials had also been placed in the compactors.

The compactor at the Pauanui Refuse and Recyling Centre was out of order when the Hauraki-Coromandel Post visited on April 27 and May 4, however the spokesperson said on Monday that to the best of their knowledge it was operational.

There had also been some confusion about the cost. The machine had been accepting a $2 coin for a bag of rubbish, but it was relabelled with a $5 charge for larger bags, before breaking down.

However, the machine has not yet been calibrated to accept $5 in coins.

Pauanui Refuse and Recyling Centre users were subsequently dropping bags of rubbish off next to the compactor and leaving them there.

A spokesperson for the council said the compactors were generally repaired within one to two days following a breakdown and any New Zealand coins could be used for them, as long as they added up to $5.

The price had changed to bring it in line with what the council was charging at transfer stations for the larger bags “because that’s what the compactors can handle”, the spokesperson said.

From July 1, 2023, a $5 fee was adopted at refuse transfer stations for people who bring in a “big rubbish bag, the ones you buy at supermarkets that are usually 60 litres in size”, the spokesperson said.

“But people can also drop off a small bag of rubbish for $2, the size of bag that groceries used to be bagged in before single-use bags were banned a couple of years ago.”

The compactors were designed and built eight years ago and have been used in other drop-off areas throughout the district.

Two compactors currently serve after-hours facilities, one each at the Pāuanui and Matarangi stations.

“When the compactors were rolled out, the price was set at $2 to dispose of a maximum of one large 60-litre bag of everyday domestic rubbish; that price hasn’t changed until now; we kept the pricing at $2 until household stocks of the TCDC blue bags, that were used for kerbside rubbish collections, were diminished in September 2023,” the spokesperson said.

“The compactor price has now been aligned to the $5 cost to dispose of the same-size bag at our transfer stations; this fee has been $5 since 2020 when it was increased from $4 through that year’s annual plan process.”