Who put Limes in the drink?

Lime has vowed to find whoever threw several of its electric scooters into the Water of Leith in Dunedin, the latest in a spate of the scooters winding up in the waterway.

The scooters have repeatedly turned up in the river, and four more were found strewn in the water at Willowbank yesterday morning, still appearing on the Lime application's map.

Lime New Zealand public affairs manager Lauren Mentjox said in an emailed statement the company's operations team retrieved the scooters yesterday morning.

"Lime does not condone this behaviour and is committed to finding those responsible.''

An Otago Regional Council spokesman said people regularly reported ``Limes in the Leith'' to the pollution hotline, but was unable to respond by deadline to questions on their potential environmental impact.

Dunedin City Council community services general manager Simon Pickford said the Council had received assurances from Lime the batteries in the e-scooters were watertight, and there was little likelihood of leakage from the batteries, or other electronic waste.

Lime was complying with the terms of the memorandum of understanding with the council and removing scooters within the agreed timeframe (two hours of being notified during ``normal Lime operational hours''), he said.

"However, not all instances of scooters in waterways or in trees are reported to Lime or the Council.

Council staff had never had to retrieve a Lime from a river, Mr Pickford said.