New rubbish service comes at a price

tags to be fitted into the new bins.

The council has budgeted $8.1 million to buy the new bins, saying it could not purchase bins already in circulation because it would be too expensive to retrofit the tags and it could not know what condition the second-hand bins would be in.

But one local private collection operator, John Cruickshank of Kleana Bins, said — with some irony — he was looking at having to throw up to 9000 wheelie bins into landfill when the council takes over.

“There’s not much of a market for second-hand wheelie bins.”

Cruickshank, who has run Kleana Bins in Tauranga for 20 years and has around 9000 customers, slammed the decision to give the contract to a big multinational company.

In his view, giving the contract to Envirowaste — owned by a Hongkong based company — was “pretty disappointing”.

“I think it’s pretty strange that they have gone ahead with signing a contract with a foreign-owned company at a time when everyone is encouraging us to support local businesses.”

He said he would likely need to let go of 12-13 staff and downsize his fleet of 11 trucks to two or three, mostly servicing rural Western Bay residents not covered by their council’s new kerbside service — also awarded to Envirowaste.

Small operators like himself were effectively blocked from bidding for the council’s business, he said, because the single contract was so big.

The council said the procurement process was competitive and open to all companies that provided waste services. “All local suppliers were given an equal opportunity to bid for contracts.”

Government rules meant the council could not treat foreign-owned