A Waitākere Ward councillor has raised concerns about the cost efficiency of Auckland Council’s bin removal project after dozens of bins were seen strewn at a depot on the outskirts of the city’s domain.
In 2023, Auckland Council carried out a “rubbish bin optimisation project” with the aim of removing underutilised bins as part of a wider cost-saving initiative.
In a statement to 1News, Auckland Council’s general manager of parks and community facilities Taryn Crewe said the council aimed to ensure rubbish bins removed as part of this project did not end up in landfill, but could be stored at one of five locations across Auckland to be repurposed or used for spare parts.
She said 1336 rubbish bins had been recycled to date, while others are stored at locations including the council’s Kari St Depot at Auckland Domain, a location in West Auckland, one in South Auckland and two locations in north Auckland.
“All the locations are fenced depot areas, screened from the public and not publicly accessible. The Kari Street Depot houses bins from the wider Auckland area,” she said.
Crewe said she understood concerns from some people in the community about how the bins have been stored.
“The bins were stored, as intended, in outside works yards, however they will be stored in a more organised manner.”
Waitākere Ward councillor Ken Turner told Breakfast there was “no such thing as zero waste” and he was not sure where the rest of the removed bins were, or how much ratepayers had actually saved from the initiative.
“It’s very hard. The transparency on where the dollars are actually saved over the spreadsheets is hard to get a grasp on.”
He said the waste collection strategy had changed a number of times since he was first elected and had gone through many different iterations in attempts to become more cost-efficient.
“Does a man going in an ad-hoc manner going all over the place picking up bins, does that save money compared to a strategy of standard schedule?
“I’m sceptical about what we’re seeing,” Turner said.
He said the project had a huge financial impact on the local boards, as some had used their own money to keep their bins.
“When a local board is funded … a big chunk of that is immediately clawed back to cover these full facility contracts by the governing body, leaving the local boards with a small amount of money as a discretionary spend.
“And some of those local boards have chosen to use that money to keep their bins, so is there a savings?”
Turner claimed “systemic failure” was to blame for the poor decisions being made and supported the mayor’s idea to empower local boards.
“The super city doesn’t work. The bigger the ivory tower, the more distant from where the decisions are being implemented, the worse the result.”
Forecast saving of $1.25 million from bin removal project
Crewe said at the project’s completion in early May 2024, 23% of bins across 16 local boards had been removed.
“The project identified bins that were in lower use parks, in natural settings where users were more likely to pack in and pack out and where there were several bins in one area, often not fully utilised, to be removed.
“The council subsequently carried out a rationalisation exercise, part of an agreed savings target in the Annual Budget 2023-2024. This aimed to reduce by 30% the number of bins spread out across the region.”
She said this represented a forecast saving of $1.25 million per year in operating expenditure.
Four local boards chose not to remove any bins and pay for them to be retained.
“We encourage people to dispose of litter in the nearest bin. If people are unable to do this, we ask that people take their litter home and not leave it on the ground, to keep the area tidy for others,” Crewe said.
