There are many locations where the amount of rubbish thrown in public bins can be excessive. While high street bins are very busy, and those outside fast food restaurants in particular, there are some areas where even these pale in significance.

These areas are either places where vast numbers visit for a specific event, or places where people spend all day enjoying leisure facilities – and it’s these types of areas where waste management and keeping the place litter-free can be a real challenge.

Theme Parks and Zoos

Theme parks and zoos are a good example of this. Because these areas have captive visitors – in other words people stay within the confines of the park all day. This means everything they consume, food, snacks, drinks, cigarettes etc are discarded on site. For some theme parks, zoos and attractions that can mean tens of thousands of people throwing vast quantities of rubbish away every day.

Sports Stadiums

Sports stadiums are another such location. Here, even greater numbers in a far smaller area congregate, again consuming food and drinks – all of which has to be disposed of. Again, these are captive visitors so everything that is consumed on the premises gets disposed of there too.

Managing Waste

So how do locations like this manage to keep litter-free and handle all that waste? Well there are four aspects for waste management in such high volume areas:

Number of Bins

Ensuring they have enough rubbish bins is essential for these locations. Not enough bins will mean the waste bins that do exist will quickly fill, overflow and lead to littering.

Public bins have to be large

Size of Rubbish Bin

Another key aspect is ensuring the rubbish and litter bins are big enough. If bins are too small then the same problems as above will exist which is why large exterior and public bins are used in such areas.

Location of Bins

If the bins are in the wrong location people may not find them or may choose to dispose of litter on the floor rather than walk round looking for the bins so good planning to site the bins in the right location (such as near eateries and snack bars).

Frequency of Emptying

Finally, ensuring the litter bins are emptied frequently also ensures that they don’t over flow. Most areas like this have a team of waste management technicians who continually empty the bins disposing of the waste in large exterior receptacles.

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.

The kitchen bin is one of the most used items in our home. Everything gets thrown into them, from food waste to old newspapers, and failing to get the correct bin can cause problems.

Ensuring you get the correct kitchen bin can be important but often people buy the wrong types of bins for the kitchen and getting it wrong can cause all sorts of problems.

The wrong type of kitchen bin:

* Can lead to bad smells around the home

* Can attract vermin and pests

* Can look bad

* Can be messy

* Can be unhygienic

In buying a kitchen bin there are several important aspects to think about which will ensure you don;t suffer any of the problems above.

Size

A kitchen bin needs to be large enough to cope with the amount of waste it will receive. Think about how many people will be using it; how often you can empty it and where it can fit in the kitchen. It’s important to remember that height will make a difference when it comes to disposing of things. Too low and you may find the bin gets covered in waste.

A swingtop bin will also prevent you from having to handle the bin

Lid

Perhaps the single most important aspect of any kitchen bin is the lid. A goo tight fitting lid is important to prevent smells from not only stinking the house out but also attracting the local wildlife. But a lid also has to be practical and easy to raise. Remember you may have to scoop food waste into the bin so a pedal bin, swing or even sensor activated bin lid will prevent food waste from dirtying the bin, it is also be more hygienic as you do not have to touch the bin to place waste in it.

Easy to clean and Empty

A bin has to be practical so avoid anything that is made form material that is difficult to clean or isn’t rugged enough. A good kitchen bin can be attractive but remember functionality is the key, it should also be easy to empty and shouldn’t be vulnerable to tipping.

Supplying the right type of bins is crucial for any educational establishment if they are to keep the school or college grounds clear.

School Bins

Littering is not a problem of the youth, or any other social group, it tends to occur because there is inadequate or shortage of bins. When hundreds of people are gathered anywhere, they will produce litter, so ensuring there is somewhere for them to put it is vital if you want to prevent people from discarding litter.

Not only are the number of bins and choosing the right location important, but putting some thought into what is going to be thrown into the bin will help ensure you get the right type and size of bin and in schools and colleges that often means thinking about the type of rubbish your students will be throwing away.

Typically, in most schools and colleges; crisp packets, cans of pop and other snack items make up most of the rubbish so sufficient litter bins in size and number is one way to ensure the students are not littering. But there are other things to think about to:

Free Standing Sack Holder Bin

Selecting the right location for the bins will help ensure the bins are used and not ignored. The canteen and any entrances in and out of the building should always have plenty of bins. Free standing sack holders are the easier solution for this as they are quick to empty and replace the sacks.

But there are other needs for student bins, that have to be thought about. For colleges, despite the policy of the school, smoking will certainly be going on somewhere, often outside entrances, so to prevent a build up of cigarette butts in doorways, its better to place a cigarette bin, or wall mounted ashtray.

Exterior Bin

Sanitary bins also need to be provided in female bathrooms, as they will also be needed in staff facilities and bins for paper towels will need to be in all bathroom areas.

Classroom bins tend to fill with just waste paper so regular waste baskets are good for here but in the corridors there will be more of a variety of items so having a few wall mounted bins along corridors is a good idea too.

There has been a trend in the last decade of home improvement. Many people are choosing to invest time and money in their homes; and why wouldn’t we – we all like to live in a nice home.

Carpets, curtains, interior furnishings and wall paper are often changed to keep up with the latest designs and to ensure the household décor is complementary. And yet in all this refurbishment there is one item that is in every room that rarely gets an upgrade – the bin.

While many of us may change the wallpaper, three-piece suite and carpets – every few years or so – often the same tatty waste bin has been sitting on the corner through every generation of improvement.

Tucked under a coffee table or behind the toilet cistern the same problem occurs in nearly every room – the chic new furnishings are let down by the small embarrassment tucked in the corner.

And bins are in every room and yet we hide them away so they become a nuisance to use. These practical parts of our furnishings can and should be shown off as part of a regular furnishings.

Household bins may hold our rubbish but that doesn’t mean they have to look rubbish too. The bin has to sit in nearly every room so why not make sure it looks good too.

Designer bins are available now that can blend and match nearly any interior theme of a home. Often they are made from shiny alloys and have a modern trendy feel. They can also be really practical and have some great mechanisms for opening the lids.

Some sensor bins you don’t even have to touch, they have movement sensors on the lid so as soon as you come close they open up allowing you to drop any waste in them without having to handle the bin. These are great for kitchen or bathroom bins.

Other designer bins are available for nearly every room in the home, from living room bins to designer waste paper bins – and there are even bins for kids. So have a look in the corner of your rooms and ask yourself – am I ashamed of my bins?

One of the biggest problems with running a school, college, university or other educational establishment is keeping the grounds tidy and litter-free. Schools and colleges can very quickly become untidy, partly because they house hundreds of young people with appetites for crisps and snacks.

Most of this rubbish is responsibly discarded in the school litter bin, however, in some schools and colleges. Headmasters and principles find certain areas become littered very quickly.

Often the playground or school yard and playing fields are quite susceptible to litter, with crisp bags and sweet wrappers quite often blowing across these areas. While there is much a headmaster and principle can do to ensure that pupils and students always use the school litter bins when necessary, solving the problem often takes more than threats of detention.

By and large, people – even students – would like to throw their rubbish away sensibly but it is often the size and logistic location of the school litter bins that causes the problem.

One of the major causes of littering in schools and indeed other places outside of educational establishments, is simply down to the lack of  litter bins. People will walk a good few yards to dispose of their litter, however, if that journey turns to a ten minute or an amble up stairs and around a corridor, the temptation to throw the litter on the floor can often be too strong.

Also litter bins that fill too quickly are also a cause for littering as people will continue to use a bin, even though it is overflowing and a full bin becomes nothing more than a pile of litter. It can also help to ensure you have the right school litter bin for the area. A small bin next to the vending machines will quickly fill while a litter bin placed in a quiet corridor can go unused for days.

Ensuring that there are enough bins in enough locations and they are the correct size will go a long way to ensuring that pupils and students are not littering but are using the school litter bins provided.

By assessing the number of school litter bins and their location and size can quite often reduce the amount of litter suffered by the school or college and will help to make the environment a better place to work and learn for all.

Tags: litter bin, rubbish bin, school bin, school litter bin, waste bin