Attacking the designer bins with saws, the thieves yank off the lids and curved fronts of the bins. Peab, the company that manages cleaning facilities in Oxie, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper that almost “every other time the bins are emptied, the front and lid are missing”.
The stainless steel aficionados sell the spare canine bin parts to dodgy scrap metal dealers.
Even before the bins were assembled in 2005, they already had a high market value. Thieves stole 580 spare bin fronts weighing a total of 5 tonnes from the municipality’s storage facilities.
Each bin costs 5,800 kronor and were originally purchased to replace plastic doggy poop bins that vandals regularly set on fire.
However, the new bins are proving to be an expensive investment and their desirability amongst non-canine lovers has contributed towards greater canine pollution.
Once the bins are vandalized, they are incapable of holding all the doggy poop in a bag and inevitably, it plops down on the ground.
Today around 1,100 stainless steel bins remain in the municipality.