As sure as eggs, if it is a stormy night and/or the nor’wester is blowing hard, it’s also the day to put your wheelie bin out for collection.  The answer to not having your rubbish end up in the river when your bin blows over is just obvious – wheelie bin latches!

It is something no one wants to have to face – clearing up the mess left behind when a wheelie blows over – yours or your neighbour’s.  And when the wind is strong enough to blow a bin over, it’s strong enough to scatter the contents of the toppled bin over a wide area, often helped by roaming dogs.

Inevitably, a good proportion of that scattered rubbish is going to end up in the river, and that really is the pits in so many ways: it’s difficult if not impossible to retrieve it, it is unsightly and it contaminates the river, to say nothing of what litter in the river appears to say about our respect for water and the waterway.

Fortunately, there is an inexpensive and effective way of largely preventing rubbish spills from wheelie bins and it is being used in several other towns and cities in New Zealand: introducing the SafeWaste cart lid latch, possibly the best stocking filler for Christmas 2022.

The plastic latch is a doddle to fit – simply wet it and loop it through one handle – and it has the added benefit of keeping the lid closed until the wheelie bin is right over the truck where the weight of the bin contents spring the latch open.  

A further advantage arises from it preventing a bin from being over-filled. An over-full bin is a problem on several levels – spilling of rubbish is obviously one issue but an over-full bin may also indicate that the household may need to review its waste stream to minimise the volume, an activity that will benefit the household and the environment equally.

Christchurch is a little slow in the uptake of this idea of wheelie bin lid catches. There are something like twenty-one councils throughout New Zealand using them including nearby Selwyn, Waimakariri and Ashburton councils. Palmerston North District Council, Manawatu District Council and Hutt City Council have installed them on all their bins.  In Wellington, the City Council issues clips free with every recycling wheelie bin and then charges $15 for any replacements after that. This widespread uptake demonstrates that this is an idea whose time has arrived.

The SafeWaste cart lid latch is available here for purchase in New Zealand for those who want to take immediate affirmative action.  However, on behalf of the community and the river, we will be requesting the Christchurch City Council to make these latches freely available for residents who want them at libraries and service centres.

In the meantime, consider buying a couple of wheelie bin latches for your red and yellow bins for Christmas.  The river will thank you.