RIVERSTONE FIELD TRIAL
Product testing is at the center of the Safewaste development story. Only when our latches performed perfectly in the toughest real-world conditions, were we confident bringing them to market.
Part of that process has been intensive field trials in demanding locations to ensure that Safewaste latches are a product you can rely on. Our biggest trial to date has been in Riverstone, a hilly suburb close to New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, famous for its windy conditions.
The suburb’s general waste, green waste and recycling is serviced by six private collection companies, with weekly collections.
AFTER HALF A YEAR, LATCHING THE LID HAS BECOME A HABIT FOR 71% OF THE USERS, WITH ANOTHER 14% USING IT AS REQUIRED.
Safewaste installed 130 cart latches in Riverstone Terraces. The trial period spanned six months, with a total of 3,120 cart lifts undertaken on the trial carts. An additional 20 Safewaste latches were fitted to carts due to requests from residents who were not involved in the trial – as willing participants these residents were not included in the field trial or survey, to eliminate a biased result.
During the trial period the driver reported zero non-opening carts during collection with the Automatic Side Loader collection trucks.
During the trial period the collection truck operator reported no cases of tipped over latched carts opening or losing litter.
It was observed that SafeWaste restricted the ability for carts to be overfilled – carts fitted with a SafeWaste were rarely overfilled compared to the other contractor’s carts.
Residents stated that they liked using the Safewaste because they could tell that their carts had been emptied if the clip was unlatched, an unexpected bonus feature.
“SAFEWASTE CATCHES ARE FANTASTIC. BEEN USING ONE FOR SEVERAL MONTHS AND EVEN IF THE BIN HAS FALLEN OVER, THE CONTENTS HAVE NOT RELEASED BECAUSE OF THE CATCH.”
— Riverstone field trial resident