Calls for investigation after ‘recycled’ wheelie bins found in northern beaches landfill

There are calls for an investigation after bins set to be recycled ended up in landfill. A whistleblower revealed pictures showing several Northern Beaches Council bins mixed in among other rubbish at the Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre.

A picture of the bins on the landfill

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There are calls for an investigation after bins set to be recycled ended up in landfill.

A whistleblower revealed pictures showing several Northern Beaches Council wheelie bins mixed in among other rubbish at the Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre, Terrey Hills.

It comes as the council nears the end of the biggest bin rollout ever in Australia. Council is replacing more than 330,000 bins and with hi-tech wheelie bins designed to make the service more efficient and environmentally friendly.

As part of the scheme, the council pledged to recycle all the old bins.

However a whistleblower, who took this picture, claimed that on several occasions council bins had been tipped into landfill at Kimbriki.

He said on each occasion 10 to 40 bins had been dumped and on one day 60 were thrown into landfill.

Residents across the northern beaches are getting new bins

Council denied there was any widespread deliberate dumping of bins and described the incident in a statement as a “one-off”.

But councillor Rory Amon is calling for an investigation.

“The council is saying this is a one off but how can they be so sure? It is certainly not what I have been hearing,” he said. “That statement is council saying ‘nothing to see here’.

“The council was alerted at 4pm on Monday and just after 10pm they put the statement on Facebook.

“To do a full investigation in just one business hour is council efficiency I have never come across before.”

The council has contracted a company called Sulo to collect the old bins and recycle them at a specialist facility. Meanwhile URM collects waste and takes it to Kimbriki where it is either processed for recycling or sent to landfill.

A council spokeswoman said the bins pictured had been picked up during the regular waste collection.

Cr Rory Amon has called for a full investigation. Picture Adam Yip/ Manly Daily

“As a bin is picked up by the hydraulic arms on the old waste trucks, they can be crushed or slip from the grip resulting in the bin being dropped into the truck hopper,” the council said in a statement.

For safety the bins can’t then be removed from the hopper and as a result get taken to Kimbriki where the council said they are “retrieved and recycled”.

“Kimbriki has confirmed a one-off case where a few damaged bins from these trucks were inadvertently sent to landfill,” the council said.

“This is not part of Council’s bin recycling program which is progressing well.”

“Council took immediate action to investigate upon hearing about the allegations and we are confident to say the claims of systematic landfilling of bins are false and misleading,” Mayor Michael Regan said.

Michael Regan said he is satisfied the incident is a one off. Picture: Adam Yip/ Manly Daily

“Council’s bin recycling program does not involve Kimbriki.

“The CEO of Kimbriki has reassured us and the community that they have implemented additional measures to safeguard the practice of recycling damaged bins.”

Kimbriki and Sulo both issued statements yesterday denying any deliberate and widespread dumping of bins.

“None of the bins collected by contractors engaged in the rollout are delivered to Kimbriki, these are collected separately, and taken directly to the bin recycler,” a Kimbriki spokeswoman said.

“Recycling is central to what Kimbriki does, over 80% of all incoming materials are recycled. We are constantly looking for ways to minimise waste to landfill and can assure the community that we are not engaged in the landfilling of recovered bins,” Kimbriki’s CEO Peter Davis added.

Sulo said more than 184,000 wheelie bins had already been collected for recycling across the northern beaches.

“Sulo is committed to closed loop recycling of old wheelie bins and regularly retrieves damaged bins from Kimbriki for recycling,” a spokeswoman said. “Claims of large scale landfilling of old bins are not correct.”