Many local councils spend the majority of the time reacting to complaints about bins or the lack of bins. If they are not responding to those complaints, they may be looking for sites for new bins and then eventually the installation process itself. Now I design and sell bins so I would have to agree with that strategy of buying new bins. But the thing is, I know that you can’t just keep installing bins without refining the old ones, updating positions and perhaps even removing some.
Often a new bin is installed at each site somebody complains about, in this case you have three bins within 10 metres. A clever upgrade would have one larger bin installed and the three bins available for re-use at other sites.
Often the local councils just replace the old bins with a newer, fresh and modern bin with a better capacity. Nothing wrong with that but to keep current and make sure the bins are working best you should be reviewing the positions before upgrading your bins.
I shouldn’t say this, but sometimes you don’t even need to purchase new bins, it might just be your old bins are now in the wrong position as your town or city has grown, the bins have just sat still.
It’s not an unusual site to see a building that was once the traditional corner store, the general store where you could pick up milk, bread and the kids would visit to buy something with the pocket money. Progress and the 24-hour convenience store has virtually wiped them out. One of the few remaining legacies of these stores is the litter bins. Bins that had captured ice-cream wrappers and lolly wrappers for many years now sit virtually abandoned. These bins and others like them that have been of great service need to be reviewed and perhaps removed.
Adding multiple small bins is the poor option. This type of location should have one larger bin and the two smaller bins re-used at sites that generate smaller amounts of litter.
A good strategy for your litter bins is to look at removing at least two bins for every three you install. If you’re upgrading a busy shopping strip, you will probably be putting in larger capacity bins at the same time as removing the smaller ones.
Let’s say you are pulling out 10 of the mid capacity 120-litre bins and upgrading to 8 of the newer 240-litre enclosures. That’s 1200 litres up to 1920 litres or a little over 37% capacity increase.
Done properly you can now reuse the 120-litre enclosures at second-tier sites, areas that may have had smaller 80/40-litre bins, another small strip of local shops, a run of bus stops ours outside some schools.
Again you should be pulling out smaller 80 or 40-litre bins that can then be reused at sites that may be just starting to need a bin. New bus stops, walking paths for dog waste or something else that only requires a smaller capacity because of the litter types that are thrown into it.
Each time you are upgrading a location, it should be to larger capacity bins, with a goal of a small reduction in bin numbers. Eventually, you could upgrade three sites with the purchase of one new larger bin, now that works best if you know where you can do both sound installations, clever repositions and the necessary removals of bins.
Managing bin numbers is an essential element of any good litter prevention strategy. If your cleaners or a Councillor need an extra bin somewhere it’s a good plan to know where you can move one from; you fix the two issues at once. A positive outcome for those requesting the bin and an upgrade of old locations to keep up with current and future demands.
Bin after bin after bin. Each of these bins could be removed and replaced with fewer larger capacity bins. All these bins could then be reused at alternate locations.
Having a strategy is fantastic, but if you are not planning for a continuous improvement of your bins and bin locations, you won’t get the most out of each and every bin. People will use bins if they are well positioned, accessible, and in public places that people are enjoying.
The role of the council is to make sure that’s happening.
If you have any questions as with all the postings feel free to contact me directly at paul@wasteadspace.com.au and I will get back to you.