We’re not the dump, says store
Clothes recycling company takes bins away as dumping of random rubbish creates health and safety risk
Aclothing recycling company has been forced to remove bins from public places after finding lamb tails, dirty underwear and hypodermic needles left with worn clothes.
Save Mart store owner Grant Doonan said the store was forced to remove the bins when they became a health and safety risk to its workers and the public.
“Our drivers are removing furniture, broken furniture, household appliances and broken, fragile items which shouldn’t be near a clothing bin,” Doonan said.
“When we have a situation where our clothing bin has become a health and safety issue to our staff and to the public we are forced to remove them.”
The company has taken bins at Napier and Hastings out of service.
Doonan was unable to confirm how many Hawke’s Bay bins had closed, but knew many had in the past six months.
He said it was a nationwide problem that was worse at this time of year as people often cleaned out
Our drivers are removing furniture, broken furniture, household appliances and broken, fragile items which shouldn’t be near a clothing bin. Grant Doonan
their houses over the summer break.
One former worker, who did not wish to be named, said the worst thing he found in his time with the firm was a hypodermic needle.
“I was there about eight months, and I only found about one, but that is one too many,” he said. As well as items turning up inside the bins, people were dumping rubbish next to the bins, the former worker said.
SaveMart Ahuriri store manager Colleen Smith says she thinks people use the clothing bins as a rubbish dump because the cost of going to a landfill was too high.
“I think it’s because of the dump fees being so dear, people don’t want to take the stuff to the dump and they dump it all by our bins.”
The bins outside the Ahuriri store had been removed, but staff are still finding rubbish and old household items dumped by the store.
“I got to work this morning and there were three or four mattresses there, an old TV, and it’s costing our company all these dump fees because half that stuff shouldn’t be at the bins.”
Smith said the Ahuriri store took about two truckloads of rubbish to the dump, three days a week, which is a major financial cost to the company.
Her message to people in Hawke’s Bay was simple: “Respect our bins, we’re not the dump.”
I think it’s because of the dump fees being so dear, people don’t want to take the stuff to the dump and they dump it all by our bins. Colleen Smith (right)