If the missus has been hounding you to clear out the mancave, or you’ve got your tool belt out recently, and now you’re dealing with a post-reno cleanup, then you might be considering hiring a skip bin to make things easier on yourself, and get your waste out of the house and off your front lawn.
Fair enough, we say!
But if you’re looking for a skip bin, you may have also wondered, what do skip bin suppliers even do with your rubbish once they’ve collected it? Well, in most cases, bugger all! In most cases, one man’s trash is another man’s… well… trash. But at Pink Bins, we’ve never felt like that was good enough!
We’re all about recycling here. If you can’t reduce it, or reuse it, then we think recycling is a crucial step before sending your rubbish to the landfill. Unfortunately, it’s a step some Kiwis forget about. We grew increasingly concerned about the amount of rubbish that was being sent to the landfill by skip bin suppliers, we knew there had to be a better way to look after our beautiful country, and there is!
What Does A Skip Bin Supplier Do With The Rubbish?
It’s an excellent question really! Once your skip bin supplier picks up your bin, it’s easy to assume they’ll drive off into the sunset to live happily ever after with your waste. But for the environmentally conscious among us, that fairytale ending isn’t enough, you’d like to know what actually happens – we get it!
It shouldn’t be too much to ask for transparency from your skip bin supplier, and it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to explain what they do with your waste (if it is difficult for them to answer, that’s a red flag! They could be shipping your waste off to wherever it’s cheapest for them to dispose of it, without much care for how that affects the environment).
If you’re anything like us, you’d like to see any waste you have grow up into something useful, off living its best life and contributing to society! Sadly, that’s not always an option… Here are some of the ways skip bin suppliers might be disposing of your waste:
Straight to the landfill!
Of course, some skip bin suppliers prioritise environmentally friendly practices and focus on operating with sustainability in mind. They may have partnerships with recycling facilities or have systems set up to minimise the amount of waste sent to landfills. But not all of them…
Sadly, a significant percentage of skip bin suppliers will send everything in your bin straight to the landfill. For them, sorting through skip bins isn’t feasible, or it is viewed as too costly, or labour-intensive. In an effort to minimise what is sent to the landfill, the New Zealand government has begun increasing the national waste disposal levy. With the levy set to increase again in the next month, you can be sure that many skip bin suppliers will be passing that cost along to their customers.
Skip bin suppliers must also comply with local regulations and laws regarding waste management, including proper disposal, and environmental protection. Unfortunately for our ability to recycle, but very fortunately for our health, some materials, like asbestos, are no longer able to be used and must be carefully removed, transported, and disposed of. While these hazardous materials can’t be recycled, or put in a skip bin, they can be placed in specially designed Hazibags and transported safely to be disposed of responsibly.
If you have specific concerns or questions about how a particular skip bin supplier will handle your rubbish, it’s best to contact them directly to inquire about their waste management practices. We can’t speak for anyone else, but we can tell you what we do with your rubbish!
The recycling process
Let’s take a tiki tour down Recycling Lane. As part of our process to become a more environmentally conscious company, we’ve been shouting from the rooftops to anyone who will listen about the importance of waste minimisation and recycling. But it’s important to us to walk the talk…
Pink Bins acquired a factory in Manukau to establish a recycling plant waaaaaay back in 2005! These days, it means that, when you choose us as your skip bin supplier, we’ll take your rubbish back to our recycling plant and our awesome team will sort through your waste, picking out anything that can be recycled, and redirecting it to start its new life as a recycled product.
When you choose to hire your skip bin from Pink Bins, we make sure that as much of your rubbish as possible is recycled – we call that Thinking Pink!
What can be recycled?
The age-old question! Whomever you ask, there always seems to be a different answer about what can and can’t be recycled. It’s confusing, but the truth is, it often depends on where you live, and the kind of recycling facilities that are available nearby.
You might be surprised by some of the items we can recycle at Pink Bins! Of course, there are the usual suspects; scrap metal, cardboard, paper, and green waste can be reincarnated as other, more valuable products at the end of their life, and timber (both treated, and untreated), Gib board, batteries, and electrical waste can be recycled too! Who knew?!
Want to hire a skip bin from Pink Bins?
If you’d like Pink Bins to be your skip bin supplier, you can rest easy knowing that we’ll do the hard yards for you – we’ll sort your waste and send as much of it as we can to be recycled. If you are looking to dispose of wood or plasterboard, we can offer a wood only skip, or a plasterboard only skip, so that you can do your bit for the planet, and avoid costly waste disposal levies.
With our Auckland-based recycling plant, you can feel confident that the contents of your skip bin aren’t being shipped off to a faraway place, clocking up an even bigger carbon footprint on the promise of being recycled, instead, we keep things in-house so that we know your waste is dealt with responsibly.
So give us a buzz, we’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about hiring a skip bin from us, and we can even check whether you are eligible for WINZ assistance.
And hey, if skip bins aren’t for you, we can sort you out with one of our skip bags which are perfect if you’re tight on space, or keen to take your time while you clear out your mancave, garage, or garden shed!