Most of us probably already know Byron Bay for its natural beauty, perhaps Australias favourite seaside town. When I called through there recently I was impressed with some of the thinking that has gone into the new bins along the famous beach’s and seaside parks.

I think it must be a trial but this was the first bank of bins (three bins side-by-side) where it was, waste – organic – recycling that I had seen. The tops of each of the bin enclosures were colour coded to match the Australian Standards, red for waste, green for organic & yellow for recycling. There was some additional signage attached to the doors of each of the enclosures which was also pretty impressive.

A fantastic set of colour coded public place bins capturing waste, organic and recycling.

The team at the local council and their Lord Mayor have demonstrated commitment to keeping the town, foreshore and beach area immaculate. There are multiple new sets of Macquarie Bin enclosures with artistic features etched into the side’s. Including images of whales breaching and surfers, very Byron Bay.

A beautiful set of bins, colour coded waste and recycling, easy to use and easy to service. Hats off to Byron Bay!

I have to admit I was a little chuffed to see the Macquarie Bin enclosure seaside in such a famous location and the fact that Byron had added its own little bit of style was fantastic. The colour coded tops to help people identify waste or recycling bins, the public place organic waste bin along with the artistic panels all just add to the overall look.

Perhaps the most impressive thing to me was the fact that the bins were full, almost to overflowing. (I did see the Council crew emptying them as well) Some may think that’s a bad thing but what it tells me is that the public are using them. I actually saw two people picking up a couple of bits of litter and then dropped it in the bins as they walked past. That is how to keep your public spaces clean and litter free.

This gent even picked up someone else’s litter on his way to the bin. Five Star human being.

When I was designing the bins I was looking for accessibility, and I wanted to make bins big enough to hold the waste generated by large numbers of people. And improve the simplicity of getting your litter into the bin, making them so easy to use that littering would perhaps become a thing of the past. (At least near the bins)

These bins have a view of one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, 365 days a year.

To see that Byron Bay have added a little bit of style to what was essentially a super functional bin was very pleasing. What it did show me was that any local council in Australia that wants to show your residents that you are committed to clean and litter free public spaces can still keep those little touches of local style along with functional bin enclosures.