Coroner rules on body in bale

The night before he died, Daniel Bindner couldn’t find a dry place to sleep.

The homeless man even called police about his struggle to find accommodation in Te Awamutu.

Bindner sought refuge from the rain in a cardboard recycling cage. That decision would lead to his death. The last person to hear from him was his ex-wife when, at 4.35am, he sent a text message to her to say the cardboard box he was sleeping in was leaking.

‘‘He was then inadvertently and unknowingly forklifted into the back of a cardboard compacting truck, whereupon the cage of cardboard was compacted,’’ Coroner Michael Robb in Hamilton said in his report into the death released on Friday.

Robb has recommended all mesh recycling cages be made to lock after Bindner was found dead of ‘‘unascertained causes’’ in a bale of cardboard waste on June 22, 2016.

Robb’s findings said Bindner, 40, was living rough in Te Awamutu after he lost his job as a farmhand. The father of three boys separated from his wife when he was made redundant on May 31, 2016.

His death was ‘‘entirely accidental, either through his accidental overdose on drugs or through injuries he sustained’’ when an EnviroWaste Waikato compacting truck collected the contents of the mesh bin he was sleeping in from central Te Awamutu.

The cardboard was transported to a recycling facility, where it was further compacted and then sent to a Hamilton recycling facility. Bindner was found dead on June 28, 2016.

‘‘I understand that the mesh cages have no lockable lid and I recommend lockable lids similar to those attached to solid-sided skip bins.’’