In the good old days many home owners had a large metal dustbin that they would place all their rubbish into before placing the large heavy lid on top. However, times move on and very few of us have a metal rubbish bin; instead a wide variety of wheelie bins and recycling bins adorn our streets.

In some areas, rubbish is deposited on the curbside in black bags and the result is that in many areas the bags attract vermin and other pests and rubbish can be leaked over the street; having been ripped open by foxes, cats and other animals.

And it’s not just homeowners and those that use black bags either. Even modern wheelie bins can be knocked over by some pests and for businesses, especially ones that dispose of large quantities of food waste – failing to keep flies, rodents and roaches at bay can lead to closure of the business.

Types of pest

There are all sorts of animals that find human waste appealing. For homeowners the biggest problem can be foxes, cats and dogs. They can knock open bins or rip open bags causing mess and nuisance.

But for takeaway and fast food businesses the problem is exacerbated by the sheer volume of waste they dispose of. Flies, cockroaches, mice and rats can be easily attracted but difficult to get rid of, and even if the problem doesn’t lead to the local authority closing the business – if word gets out a lack of customers might.

A good lid wil help prevent vermin

And new pests are starting to get attracted to the waste in cities too. Gulls, once only seen around the coast; plague nearly every city and town.

Preventing Vermin

Prevention is always better than cure and keeping pests away from your rubbish can be easy o accomplish by following these basic steps.

• To prevent large animals from getting into your bin – ensure you have a sturdy and strong outdoor bin. Make sure it has a heavy lid too.
• If food waste is thrown away and stored outside, it is essential it is kept in a rubbish bin with a tight fitting lid. This will prevent smells and prevent your rubbish appealing to the local wildlife.
• Clean the bin regularly; use bin deodorisers if necessary otherwise you may find the detritus in a dirty bin attracts flies.
• Think of other methods of getting rid of food waste; composting is one idea.

Whether you running a public building, private business or are part of the service sector you are responsible for the rubbish you accumulate and dispose of. For most people that is a case of simply throwing the waste in the outdoor bin until it is collected. However, health, hygiene and safety risks can occur in many locations where waste is stored outdoors.

From the rear of fast food takeaways to the outdoor bins at schools, hospitals and other public locations, it is vital that proper steps are taking to prevent accident, injury of health problems due to poor waste management.

Outdoor bins can cause the following issues:

• Fire
• Safety
• Smells
• Pests

But preventing and eliminating these problems is straightforward by following these steps:

Fire risk

Fire retardant bins are commonly used in hotels and hospitals, as a fire in an indoor bin could have catastrophic consequences. However, when combustible material, including paper, is being disposed of, fire retardant bins are often worth considering. If an outdoor bin does set alight there is a possibility it could affect neighbouring buildings.

Safety

Safety is important as outdoor bins can be very large receptacles. An outdoor bin, if full, it could cause serious injury if it toppled on somebody. People can also be prone to get inside large bins as a prank or to retrieve items, this too can lead to serious injury. Ensuring the bin is secure and unlikely to topple or be able to cause injury in other ways is important to prevent liability. Any waste that could be considered dangerous should be disposed of responsibly which may mean a specialist bin.

Smells

Outdoor bins need to be safe

A common problem with some outdoor bins, especially restaurant bins and those outside takeaways. Smells can attract pests, flies and be generally unpleasant for the local community. Bin deodorizers are available to reduce problems but regular emptying and a good fitting lid should reduce thee problems.

Pests

Different types of pests can cause different problems. Flies, cockroaches and rodents can invade buildings and force closures of food premises, whilst larger animals like foxes, raccoons and domestic pets will knock bins over and cause mess. Again, a secure fitting lid and sturdy outdoor bin will provide the solution.

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.

Providing public litter bins and waste containers is not as simple a task as it may first appear. There is more to the humble outdoor and public bin than just being a receptacle for rubbish. And quite often, if when local authorities, hospitals or other public body gets their waste bin decisions wrong – it can be disastrous and expensive.

There is so much to think of when supplying public bins and there is more to it than just supplying somewhere for the public to throw their litter.

Size, quantity and location

highly important as too small a bin, not enough of them or the wrong locations will just ensure littering continues. Establish the footfall in the area; what type of businesses are in the location (such as fast food places) and how often the bins get empties to ensure you get the right size and quantity. And place them where they are clearly visible and easy to access – a bin outside a fast food restaurant should be outside, not across the road!

Smells

If there are food businesses around then you will need to ensure that there is appropriate external bins provided for customers. These will need lids as the smell of rotting food is not only unpleasant it will attract vermin.

Transparent bins prevent explosive devices from being hidden

Fire retardant and Bomb threats

Often a consideration in public buildings like hospitals. Litter can often a be a source of fire so fire retardant bins are important as lives could be at risk. Also in public areas bins and waste containers have been used by terrorists and many public areas in countries that suffer this sort of problem use transparent bins to prevent the hiding of explosives.

Vandalism

A public bin needs to be tough and secure enough that it can’t be tipped over by vandals otherwise it will constantly get kicked over, spewing litter across the public are – making the bin pointless.

Sanitary Bins

In places like hospitals or public washrooms appropriate sanitary bins need to be used to prevent spread of disease. Regular bins should never be used for things like ladies hygiene products or waste bandages.

One of the biggest nuisances about bins is the smells hat can often be produced. Most of us will have come home one evening only to be greeted by the stench of rotting fish, meat of vegetation emanating from the kitchen bin.

But bin smells can be prevented and often there is usually a root cause why your kitchen or external bin is attracting flies and creating a stench:

The Right Bin

Often the problem causing bins smells s that the wrong bin is being used for the job. When sourcing a bin it is important you think about the type of waste that is being disposed of. Kitchen waste and other organic material is often what causes bin smells so you need to choose an appropriate kitchen bin that has been designed to hold this sort of waste.

External bins too are often a cause of smells and quite often it is because large amounts of kitchen and food waste are thrown away into the wrong type of external bin. If you have catering business you need to ensure the external bin you choose is manufactured to eb able to deal with large amounts of food waste.

The Bin Lid

One of the biggest causes of bin smells is a badly fitting lid. The bin lid is incredibly important for external bins and kitchen bins, or any other type of bin that has to hold rotting waste. The lid needs to fit well and remember, for external bins they need to be able to prevent vermin and pests from entering too.

Bin Lids are key to reducing smells

Over full bin

Another cause of smells is that the bin should have been emptied. A bin that is too full may prevent the lid from closing which will cause smells but also there may just be too much stuff in there for it to contain the gases escaping from them.

For external bins you also need to make sure the bin can’t be knocked over easiliy as a spilled bin will cause smells and mess.

Bin Deodorisers

Bin deodorisers are a good short term fix and useful if you are dealing with some really strong smelling waste. These can mask a lot of smells and prevent the bin from becoming tainted by the smells of the waste it normally holds.

Recycling is now compulsory in many areas of the country. It is no longer something that just a few people do that are conscious about the environment. Recycling is now a prerequisite for many householders and is often enforced with fines or a refusal to collect rubbish.

But is can be a confusing issue, especially considering the different schemes that run up and down the country where different materials are accepted for recycling. Often there is a lot of disparity in the number of recycling bins and what items can go in each too which adds to the confusion.

However, if recycling is compulsory then local authority recycling bins should be provided to most householders with instructions as to what can be placed in each. In general recycled materials can be summed in the following categories:

Different Recycling Materials:

Metals – both ferrous and non ferrous, often both can be placed in the same recycling bin.

Plastics – Many local authorities can’t yet recycle plastic but there are a few that do and plastics these would therefore have to be separated from the general household waste that would go into the conventional rubbish bin.

Paper – Paper and card are recycled by most local authorities. Sometimes large tubs or containers are used rather than  paper recycling bins doesn’t cause smells of other environmental hazards.

Food/organic waste – This can’t really be recycled by your local authority but you can do so at home by composting. Food waste rots anyway so it doesn’t pose too much of an environmental hazard.

Ceramics – Again, not all authorities will recycle ceramics and some will combine it with glass recycling too.

Clothing/fabrics – A lot of clothes that aren’t worn can be distributed to needy causes but fabrics can be recycled too so enquire to what schemes are on in your area.

Glass/bottles – Some authorities expect you to go the bottle bank, others will provide you with a recycling bin for glass

Garden Waste – this can be used by local authorities and recycled and often gardening bins are provided to recycle grass cuttings and the like.

In some local authorities many of the above items can be placed in the same recycling bin, in others separate recycling bins are provided (in one local council in the UK – nine different recycling bins have been supplied to residents) so it is important to check what can go in each bin.

One of the unforeseen challenges to any business, local authority, council, institute or contractor is equipping a new building or facility with refuse bins. Waste bins after all are a common-or-garden object, so how difficult can it be?

Well actually, choosing the wrong type of bin can have all sorts of repercussions in the smooth running of any building or institute. Ensuring you kit any building out with the right equipment is crucial and making sure you select the right bins is no different. Not only can litter and mess build-up if the right bins are not provided but all sort of other problems can occur – from vermin to potential fires.

Essentially there are four things to think about when supply bins for a building, facility or institute:

Type of Waste

The first thing to think about is the type of waste that is disposed of. This will go along way in helping you decide what type of rubbish or waste bin is required. If food waste is being disposed of a good kitchen bin with appropriate lid is essential and so is an external bin capable of repelling vermin and pests and also keeping smells at bay.

In most offices, the largest volume of waste is paper based. Whilst simple waste paper baskets are adequate inside the building, you will need to ensure any external bins are fire retardant in case the paper is accidentally or deliberately ignited.

Fire retardant bins should be considered if combustible materials like paper is discared in quantity

Size of Bin Required

The size of both internal and external bins relies on two points:

* The frequency of emptying

* The amount of waste discarded

Location of bins

Another aspect to get right is ensuring the bins are in the right place. If bins are in the wrong location littering and waste time can often occur. Think of the workforce and where they will be when they require a waste bin.

Volume required

Ensuring you have enough bins is also important as is choose the right bin for the location too – kitchen bins should be provided where food is served and in bathrooms some sort of sanitary bin will be required.