Rubbish and litter is an inevitability. Everybody accumulates waste and rubbish that has to be disposed of. The average person in the United Kingdom disposes of over 5 kilos of rubbish a week in their rubbish bin – a quarter of a tonne a year.

All that waste has to go somewhere too. It is either buried in landfills, burnt or it can be recycled. However, not everything can be recycled and much of what we throw away in our rubbish bins isn’t biodegradable, meaning it can linger around landfills for decades – damaging the environment in the process.

Types of rubbish

The type of rubbish we throw away can be divided into five different categories. Some of which is biodegradable, some which isn’t:

• Plastic – Most plastics aren’t biodegradable. Many can’t be recycled either which is why the use of plastics is becoming an increasing environmental concern.
• Paper/card – from packaging to newspapers most paper can be recycled in some for or another. Paper recycling bins and recycling containers make it easy to store before it is taken away.
• Tins and metals – Most metals can be recycled and special recycling facilities exist in most towns and cities to deal with it.
• Ceramics and glass – Both can be recycled so look out for bottle banks or glass recycling bins.
• Organic waste – from lawn trimmings to the garden to food scraps fro the kitchen. The least harmful to the environment, organic waste is useful as compost and fertilisers.

Recycling

Recycling is essential if we are to keep in check our growing need for landfill and the increase in rubbish that is being discarded. Different types of recycling bins are available for both public and home use.

Household recycling bins, for inside the home, are often separated into compartments to make recycling easier. The rubbish can then be disposed of in the relevant outdoor bins. Often recycling bins are colour coded to make the process easier.

Can bank

Non-recyclable waste

Waste that is thrown in the rubbish bin and can’t be recycled can become a nuisance, especially many plastics that linger in the environment. Look to ways to reduce the amount of plastics and packaging you consume to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill. You will be surprised at how little you really do need to throw away in the waste bin.

Waste is a key part of any business -whilst reducing waste can help increase profitability – it can never be totally eliminated and all businesses have to deal cope with waste management.

Rubbish and waste in some businesses is often minimal and requires little more thought than the removal of rubbish from our homes does. However, in some industries, rubbish removal and waste management can be an integral part of a running a successful business and should never be dealt with lightly:

Food Industry

In the UK there are more fast-food restaurants, diners and takeaways, per person than in any other nation on earth* and all that takeaway food can result in masses of waste that the fast food industry has to deal with.

In the fast food business the rubbish discarded comes in two types:

• Packaging and wrapping
• Food waste

And each has to be dealt with differently.

Packaging and wrapping from fast food items is often discarded close to the premises and businesses need to work with their local authority to ensure there are enough public bins and external bins for litter.

Food waste has to be handled differently, however. Food can attract vermin and can also lead to unpleasant smells. For general use inside the business a good kitchen bin should be used. It needs to be large enough to handle day-to-day waste while also should have a well-fitted lid. You may find for ease of use a pedal bin or sensor bin will be prevent the need from handling it.

Externally – food waste needs to be stored in an outdoor bin which also has a good lid. External bins will also need to be sturdy to prevent them being toppled by vermin.

Office Paper and Recycling

Offices are another common business area that can amass large amounts of waste. Generally most office waste comes in the form of paper.

Paper can of course be recycled so a good paper recycling bin or container should be kept to allow the paper to be collected and recycled. There should be some risk assessment into storing paper as it is a potential fire risk. If waste aper is discarded to an outdoor area a fire retardant bin might be worth a consideration.

Large Capacity Recycling Bin

Steel large capacity recycling bins are a good idea for nearly all types of businesses that discards a lot of recyclable material. There are also recycling bins for collection of plastic cups – another common item discarded from business.

There has been quite a bit of bad press about the littering caused by students in some university towns. And in many areas where residents live in local proximity to local schools, college or universities, littering is a cause for tension between the local community and the educational establishment.

The problem with litter around education buildings is the sheer number of people that use these areas. But neither the students or the schools or colleges are to blame. Often the cause of the littering and the discontent amongst the local community is as a result of bad planning with the areas litter bins and bins for the public.

Student Lifestyle

Students also have an active lifestyle and consume more packaging and fast food products than regular consumers which often leads to a greater amount of litter in areas with a high student population.

This is often overlooked by local authorities who find that the number, type and frequency of emptying of their litter bins is often underestimated causing overflowing bins and strewn litter.

Bin collections too are often too infrequent in these locations and it is often forgotten that in student areas there are many adults living under the same roof so the amount of household litter will also be higher than in residential areas.

Increasing the frequency of collections in these areas will reduce the litter in the residential parts of town.

Public Bins

Around the high street the public bins may need replacing or increasing in number. If there is littering then it is likely there is one of three problems:

• There are not enough public outdoor bins
• The outdoor bins are not large enough
• The public bins are in the wrong location

If the local bins are often full then the problem is going to be size or number. However, it is quite common for the high street litter bins to be half empty but there is still a high level of litter. This may often be because the litter bins are in the wrong location. Ensure fast food outlets and main thoroughfares are covered with large capacity outdoor bins.

Public litter bins

Increasing the number of bins around an area will also reduce the amount of litter but this there is often an added cost to doing this as there will be more bins to empty. By replacing the public litter bins with larger ones this will prevent additional costs from occurring.

While I have stayed in many rubbish hotels, I have yet to stay in one made from rubbish. Yet, environmental campaigners in Rome have done just that.

To raise awareness of pollution the campaigners have constructed a temporary hotel made nearly completely from rubbish. Complete with five rooms and a reception it is lined with tonnes of rubbish from tin cans, to car exhaust pipes.

While the campaigners are trying to raise awareness about the problem waste can cause, it also highlights another problem. How public buildings, like hotels deal with tonnes of waste that is thrown away in their buildings.

Hotels, shops, bars, restaurants and other public buildings accumulate vast amounts of waste from the people that visit, work or use the facilities and it is a perennial headache for those running these buildings to ensure the waste is disposed of.

Hotel Bins often have to be fire retardant

Public Bins

Public bins do differ to the household bins that we use at home. There are other aspects to think of when supplying bins for the public. Quantity, size and safety are important factors.

As an example, bins for hotels quite often need to be fire retardant bins as the consequence of a clumsily disposed of cigarette could be catastrophic.

Another problem with public bins is the quantity of waste and the frequency of emptying. Us householders may be able to go a week without seeing the dustman but this is not possible when there are vast amounts of waste accumulating in public buildings.

Often places like hotels will have large capacity outdoor bins. These large external bins can hold several day’s worth of rubbish and are often emptied frequently by independent contractors.

The actual indoor bins themselves in public buildings are also larger in capacity than kitchen bins or other household rubbish receptacles. It is also often a full-time job to ensure bins in public buildings are emptied frequently enough, even with these large capacity litter bins.

Britain has the largest number of public parks and open spaces than any other country in Europe. There are dozens of urban parklands in many of our major cities and conurbations. However, as pleasurable as these urban natural oasis are they are expensive to maintain.

Councils and local authorities have to invest huge amounts of tax payers money in ensuring these public spaces are kept clean, tidy and safe. And one of the biggest enemy’s of this perennial task – is litter.

Littering costs local authorities a fortune and unlike in the city, it is a particularly challenging job to clean it up in parks and open spaces because of the large areas involved. Not only is litter in parks unattractive but also some litter can pose a hazard to the many children and families that use the parks. Litter can also attract vermin which can be difficult to get rid of and can cause its own problems.

Litter bins

Your number one defence in ensuring any public area is litter free is the public waste bin. Litter bins will help people act responsible when it comes disposing of their waste – as long as they are clearly visible. A good quantity of large outdoor bins will prevent a lot of the litter that can be carelessly discarded but attention needs to be paid to the location of the bins, the size and the frequency of emptying.

Ensuring areas of high usage such as near where ice cream vendors operate will prevent many of the litter problems that can occur in those areas. But other types of bin should also be considered.

Gardening bins and other outdoor bins should also be plentiful for the park’s workers as having to return to bins too frequently is time consuming.

Litter Bins for Local Authorities

Some thought should also go into what to do with any sanitary and hazardous waste. This should obviously be removed as soon as possible, taking every precaution, and a good sanitary bin would be a good idea to ensure it can be stored safely until it can be properly disposed of.

Other Litter Prevention

Dog fouling is another problem in park areas so ensuring there are facilities to dispose of this type of waste will, as with littering, will help encourage dog owners to be responsible.