Blair Kippenberger likes nothing more than a bit of trash talk.
The entrepreneur has launched his latest venture, a kerbside wheelie bin washing service catering for both residential and commercial customers in Dunedin.
He was inspired by his own experiences. About six months, ago, he was putting his wheelie bin out for collection and it was “pretty grubby and stinky” and had become a haven for insects.
He kept meaning to clean it after it had been collected, but that never quite eventuated, and it got him thinking about how good a service which cleaned the bins on collection day after being emptied would be.
Beginning some research, Mr Kippenberger discovered wheelie bin cleaning was “massive” in the United States, big in the United Kingdom and really emerging in Australia — so he decided to have a crack in Dunedin.
He looked at importing a turnkey truck from the United States, but that came with a lot of unknowns, and he was referred to LB Engineering in Kaikorai Valley. He showed his research to the team and asked if something could be built in three months, ready for summer, and they agreed.
The bins received a hot, high-pressure wash and rotating stainless steel cleaning heads, imported from Italy, cleaned the inside of the bin. The wastewater was collected in Bin Blast’s automated cleaning truck and disposed of at a local water treatment facility.
Initially, the service was being provided in the city and surrounding suburbs, from Outram to North East Valley, Port Chalmers to Portobello. The plan was to eventually have trucks operating in multiple locations, but he wanted to nail the service in Dunedin first.
He found the waste industry interesting and what he loved about the cleaning service was how simple it was, yet it was a pain point for many households who either did not have the time or the facilities to clean their bins. The key element was not having to put it additionally out for cleaning, he said.
An Otago Daily Times Class Act recipient in 2007, Mr Kippenberger co-founded meal delivery service Delivereasy, of which he remains a shareholder.
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
