Wheelie bins turn out to be rubbish

More than 50,000 of the new red-lid bins may be faulty, reports Wayne Thompson.

The Auckland City Council has started a huge hunt for faults in a $2 million batch of its new wheelie bins and has frozen payments to the manufacturer.

Councillors were dismayed when they learned that as many as 90 per cent of 60,000 bins bought from an Otahuhu manufacturer failed council specifications, said councillor David Hay.

This number would cost $2 million to replace in full.

Mr Hay said the disclosure of the flaws by officers after the council meeting on September 13 came on top of a string of problems in bringing in the $104.2 million system of red-top wheelie bins on July 1.

At 120 litres capacity, the bins were half the size of the former official bins.

"The bins have only been taken out to the letter box 10 times and already the wheels are falling off," said Mr Hay.

Apart from failing wheels, ill-fitting lids and blurred logos, the bins had thin walls that an expert predicted would not withstand harsh ultraviolet light.

But Mayor Christine Fletcher said last night that she knew of faults to a varying degree only on 410 bins given to residents in the west.

She said the reports of flaws were being treated seriously, although they were small compared with the 146,000 bins in use.

Faults had been reported only in suburbs that received 50,000 bins made by Otahuhu company Sulo-Simaplas. No problems were reported with the rest of the bins, which were from Australia and Germany.

Mrs Fletcher said the manufacturer would repair faults but accelerated ageing tests would be carried out to indicate durability.

Until this information was available, the council would withhold $1.5 million still owing for bins, in addition to a $250,000 performance bond.

Mrs Fletcher said performance clauses in the contract meant the council was not exposed to financial loss if a number of bins proved faulty.

The Otahuhu company had a $2.5 million contract to supply 75,000 bins but it had to bring in 15,000 made in Australia to fill the order in time.

But Mr Hay said the council should have done quality control checks before the bins went to homes and it should have withheld enough money from the manufacturer to cover replacements.

The chairman of the council works committee, Doug Astley, confirmed that wheels fell off three bins in the first week and a "trickle"of problems followed .

But he heard nothing at the September 13 verbal briefing by officers to suggest 50,000 bins were "packing up" and had to be replaced.

"We have a professional group checking quality and specifications and expect to know the extent of faults by late next month."

The council had bought the bins from the manufacturer for about $33 each to sell them to its three rubbish collection contractors. Before buying, contractors needed assurance the bins would last the life of their seven-year collection contracts.

Spokesmen for both Sulo-Simaplas and the western city collection contractor did not return the Herald's calls.

Mr Astley said the smaller wheelie bin had encouraged recycling.

The council introduced the bins two months ago with the aim of halving the amount of domestic waste going to landfills by 2005

Progress figures showed waste taken to landfills in the two months had dropped 34.5 per cent in the two months or from 18,019 tonnes to 11,810 tonnes.

Residents had also recycled 77 per cent more glass, 57 per cent more plastics and 4.8 per cent more cans. Paper and cardboard recycling was up 23.8 per cent.