Major change coming to charity bins in Australia – after man was found dead in a bin
A clothing recycling company is to overhaul the design of its charity bins after a man died after becoming stuck in one of the boxes.
The SCRgroup will consider moderating the donation bins used by thousands of Australians to recycle second-hand clothing.
It comes just days after a man’s legs were found hanging outside one of the collection boxes at Westfield Tuggerah on the NSW Central Coast.
Emergency services were called to the scene after a passer-by saw legs hanging out of the charity box at around 4.25am on Tuesday.
A NSW Police source told Daily Mail Australia the man appeared to have broken his neck while ‘bin surfing’ or ‘dumpster diving’ before dying.
“We think he was surfing and fell and broke his neck,” they said.
A company that recycles old and used clothing is to redesign its charity bins (pictured) to make the items safer for users
Officers arrived at the scene to discover the body of a man stuck in the gutter, with a bicycle on the ground at the foot of the bin.
It is understood the man used the bicycle to propel himself to the coffin so he could get the clothes inside.
He then became stuck in the parachute after the clothes he was trying to collect suddenly slipped, leaving him stranded.
The SCRgroup will now redesign the bins to further reduce the risk to users.
“We are working quickly to understand if anything has gone wrong with the clothing hub, the design of which has been tested locally and internationally, to minimize any further risks that could arise from the dangerous practice of bin diving,” a spokesperson said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted SCRgroup for comment.
The company has decided to take this step after the body of a man was found hanging outside one of the collection boxes at Westfield Tuggerah (pictured) on the NSW Central Coast.
SCRgroup has more than 1,500 clothing drop-off points across Australia, used by more than two million Australians to collect and dispose of recycled clothing.
The company recycles more than 30 million kilos of clothing, preventing it from ending up in the landfill.
A Westfield employee told Daily Mail Australia that two of his colleagues, who work at a nearby bakery, walked past the bins at around 3am when they arrived at work.
The employee said his colleagues did not notice the protruding body, but saw the bicycle under the bins.
“We were told he had stood on his bicycle to steady himself as he tried to get items from the bin, but the bicycle had fallen and he became stuck,” he said.
Police are not treating the man’s death as suspicious and are still investigating the incident.
A report is being prepared for the coroner.