Langley Township is suing its trash bin supplier, claiming that almost 11,000 containers broke before their expected 10-year lifespan was up.
According to a statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on March 21, the Township had two contracts starting in 2016 to supply tens of thousands of bins that are used for garbage and green bin collection across the community. There are about 20,000 households getting trash pickup in the Township.
The first contract was with IPL Inc., a Quebec-based firm. The company delivered four sizes of containers, from 80 litres to 360 litres, but most of them were 240 or 120 litre containers. The Township bought 46,335 240 litre containers and 7,668 120 litre containers from IPL between 2016 and 2019.
The contract was then transferred to Rollins Machinery Ltd., from which the Township bought another 2,024 240 litre containers, 1,110 80 litre containers, and 696 120 litre containers up until 2022.
The specifications under both contracts called for containers that would stand up for 10 years, according to the Township’s statement of claim.
However, the Township now alleges that 10,502 of the IPL containers and 390 of the Rollins containers are “not fit for the intended application, have not performed satisfactorily for the intended purposes and are defective.”
Alleged defects include cracking in the body where the metal catch bar meets the plastic, cracking around the entire circumference of the containers, the metal catch bar breaking loose, and the containers cracking entirely in half.
That has rendered 10,892 containers entirely unusable, the statement of claim says.
According to the Township’s submission to the courts, they notified IPL as early as 2019 about the defects, and IPL made a partial replacement, with 500 new 240 litre containers at no cost, and a discount on the next 4,000 the Township ordered.
However, the defects have continued to the present, with “especially high rates of defects” in the 240 litre containers for both trash and green waste, the Township claims.
The municipality is now suing both firms. It’s seeking damages that would cover the cost of replacement containers, removing defective ones from service, and internal costs from tracking and addressing the defects.
As of April 5, a response from IPL and Rollins had not yet been posted on the B.C. court website. The Langley Advance Times has reached out to both firms.
The Township’s claims have not yet been tested in court.
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