The Queenstown Lakes District Council received confirmation this week that the official Council 60 litre blue rubbish bags are not what they seem.

The 60 litre blue bag had changed in specification in spring, last year to be shorter but wider, as agreed by Council. The intention was the bags would continue to have an actual capacity of at least 60 litres, the capacity of the previous bag shape.

“Over the years we generally receive a small number of complaints about the size of rubbish bags, it’s certainly something people like to challenge but in recent months when those complaints seemed to have more substance than normal, we decided to undertake our own series of tests,” QLDC solid waste manager Stefan Borowy said.

What Council discovered by filling the 60 litre bag with water to the brim was that it had only a 57 litre capacity.

“We contacted the manufacturer and it has confirmed this week that incorrect settings at the time of manufacture had led to the reduced capacity,” Mr Borowy said.

There was no pecuniary advantage to the manufacturer for producing the wrong size bag and they had apologised for the error and committed to get underway with production of new bags with a capacity of at least 60 litres.

“Once the new bags have been produced we will remove the old stock from the supermarket shelves,” Mr Borowy said.

He estimated that over the six month period, the slightly reduced bag size potentially could have disadvantaged fulltime residents to the tune of approximately 60 litres or in other words, one rubbish bag full.

“Clearly that is something that we want to put to rights so we have negotiated with the manufacturer which had agreed to supply some bags at no cost,” he said.

Although the greater part of the rubbish bag cost lay in the collection and disposal, Council would also come to the party with an offer for any resident that felt disadvantaged by the oversight. “If people would like to come into Council at either Wanaka or Queenstown, any time next week, with proof of residence, they will receive two free rubbish bags per household,” he said. The offer would end on Friday 22 June, 2012.

He said Council would now closely monitor every new batch of bags to insure residents and ratepayers were receiving full value for money.

ENDS
For further information please contact Stefan Borowy 03 441 0499.

By: Andrea Bunting