In many rural areas of the UK, predominantly remote villages, wheelie bins are not provided by councils for every household and residents usually put their rubbish out in sealed black bags, a few hours before collection is due. Whilst in some geographical settings this might work out just fine, in any settlement located on the coast, a major inconvenience arises, in the form of seagulls. They are certainly charming creatures and an indispensible feature of the marine environment, yet they do have a very bothersome habit – that of tearing people’s black bags apart and dragging the rubbish all over the streets. Other animals do it as well, such as cats or dogs, yet seagulls are the principal culprits when it comes to small fishing villages, for instance. They create an awful mess in a fairly short interval, which results in household occupants having to sweep the streets and repackage the rubbish in new bags. Obviously, when the rubbish is spread all over the street, council employees do not collect it and it is just the perfect scene to come home to after a hard day’s work.

The only solution to that is purchasing a wheelie bin, preferably lockable, which guarantees that all intruders will be kept out and prevents any littering. The standard capacity for household wheelie bins in of 240 litres, yet many variations are available and the choice should be made according to every household’s needs.  They range from small bins with a capacity of under 100 litres to giant 1100 litre ones, which are typically used on commercial premises. They are generally made from plastic and thus are very light and more hygienic than other variations; their wheels also insure excellent mobility. The locking feature is important as well, as seagulls and other animals have the strength to push lids open and the imminent result is the usual mess. In fact, in large cities they are known to regularly ransack through tenement bins, which are communal and are never locked. Although wheelie bins with lockable lids are more expensive, in the long run they are well worth the money as they will save you a lot of trouble.

Needless to say, in areas where councils don’t provide wheelie bins for general waste, they don’t provide recycling bins either (although there usually are some communal ones, even small villages). If you want your own recycling bins however, you should look into buying wheelie bins for this purpose (some models come with special apertures for each type of material) or indoor recycling bins, if your property is spacious enough.

Whereas school rubbish audits might have an educational finality by teaching pupils to sort the waste and recycle, household rubbish auditing undertaken by councils is an entirely different matter. As first reported by the Mail Online three years ago, in Lancashire, people’s wheelie bins were ransacked through by council employees, this time not for fear of any ‘environmental crimes’ but with the purpose of studying their contents. Moreover, when the issue of privacy came into question, a council spokesman replied that had residents actually known their rubbish was taken away to be privately analysed and records kept of it, they would have ‘acted consciously’. He also added that they had to be kept unaware of the fact that ‘they were being studied’.
Obviously, the content of each container was associated with its emitting household and data was kept on the findings. The purpose of this study, as stated by the same spokesman, was to examine waste trends, in terms of what was being thrown away, as well as buying habits – apparently, it’s not just supermarkets which want to keep track of purchased products (through loyalty cards). In fact, there is hardly any outdoor activity people engage in which is not monitored and recorded for posterity. Acknowledging the fact that had people been aware of this, they wouldn’t have thrown away what they normally do, is basically admitting that this practice is completely abnormal and invades residents’ privacy. Moreover, in some parts of the UK, where grey wheelie bins are provided for non recyclable waste, if a household produces more rubbish than initially estimated by the council  and requires an additional bin, a Neighbourhood Officer is mandatorily sent to perform a waste audit in order to verify that.

Household waste auditing (on a voluntary basis, this time) is also used by certain organisations in a bid to help people learn how to sort their rubbish and minimise the amount sent to landfill, by using a practical demonstration on their own waste and encouraging them to change their habits. Whilst there is no doubt that the finality is a positive one, the method is still subject to a bit of controversy. The sheer willingness of some people to allow access to what was once considered private, as opposed to simply learning more about recycling from the plethora of available sources, leads to a somewhat dangerous precedent and the lack of opposition to undisclosed invasions of privacy, such as those carried out by councils, mentioned above. It is seemingly not enough for people to expose more and more of their daily trivia on social networking sites; now they are being encouraged to let strangers assess any aspect of their lives, including rubbish.

In April 2011, according to The Guardian, two Gloucester citizens were the focus of a 20.000 pound police operation for taking no more than 47 pence worth of scrap from a tip, in the form of an electric drill and a video game console. According to The Sun, the two were arrested while walking home from the scarp yard by eight police officers, grouped into two vans, three patrol cars, two dog units, and even more surprisingly, a helicopter. They were then held overnight in a cell and questioned the following day. It is not clear yet who reported the ‘’crime’’, as the Gloucester Police superintended classed it; chances are live monitoring of the scrap yard was involved.

As the UK turns into a police state, we will certainly hear more stories of this kind. To the average citizen this is of course shocking, especially considering the magnitude of the operation for an incredible trifle. There is no doubt that by allowing media exposure, a message of intimidation was sent to the general public, namely that they are being scrutinized and taking any liberty of this kind, even though it is not an immoral act or detrimental to anyone, will result in serious consequences. Anywhere in their communities, when outside their homes, people should become aware that they are being constantly watched. Of course we now know Orwell’s 1984 was anything but fiction and that any similarities between the world he envisaged and present day reality are no coincidence. Most people still refuse to believe that the absurdity and persecution of citizens will intensify, yet when the misappropriation of rubbish brings about a helicopter chase, even the most placid and unaware should sense that something isn’t right.
Recycling bin inspections are not a new notion today, although a few years ago, they did generate some backlash, especially since recycling was not mandatory and people going out of their way to comply were being targeted and their recycling rummaged through. Today however there’s little fuss about it; people have adapted.

Putting out the rubbish or/and recycling for collection too early will also result in a fine from the council, as previous cases have proved. The manner in which the council becomes aware that the rubbish bins are out before collection actually takes place is not dwelled upon though – surprisingly enough. In one famous case and presumably other cases as well, it was through CCTV monitoring. Enquiries made to councils proved that not even elderly people, who need someone else to move the bins for them and place them outside, are exempt from this rule. It seems that councils and even courts, if appealed to, have no moral qualms nowadays about imposing hefty fines on financially disadvantaged people who cannot afford to pay them.

Did you know that the average Londoner throws away more waste per year than residents in any other major European city? On average, they throw away 520kg a year, compared with 450kg nationally (not including recycling), which is a huge figure in itself, especially when you consider that 60% of that rubbish could be recycled. Couple this with the fact that over 50% of that rubbish will be sent to landfill – which are notorious for releasing harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases – and we have a major issue on our hands.

It’s a massive problem, but one that could be solved quite simply with a bit of time and effort. Recycling bins are ever more ubiquitous sights around the country and we should all make an effort to use them more.

In terms of reducing the harm caused by landfill, one small but significant way you can do this is by getting yourself a dedicated battery bin, particularly if you use a lot of them at home or in your office. This is because batteries leak acid and other chemicals when they’re left too long and need to be specially recycled. Unfortunately, most of them still end up in landfill. Get your home or office a small, sealable bin where they can be stored until you can dispose of them properly – it doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just a small pedal bin or dedicated recycling bin for harmful items will do the job.

Of course, recycling more generally is also a fantastic way to reduce landfill. A great way to do this – and encourage those you live or work with to do it, too – is to get a set of dedicated recycling bins. These often come with different coloured lids so you can assign different colours to different recyclable items, such as blue for paper and green for garden waste.

You can also get dedicated cup collectors, which are brilliant for offices where the water cooler sees a lot of use. These reduce the volume of cups for recycling and store them more effectively so you can manage the amount of waste you throw away. They even come with a removable flask that collects any waste left in the cups so you don’t even need to worry about the mess – a great solution for introducing recycling practices to your building, reducing landfill and using your bins more productively all at the same time.

Bins for different locations have to be deigned with different parameters. Bins for kitchens, for instance, need to have tight fitting lids to prevent smells, while recycling bins need some sort of colour-coding to enable identification so the right waste goes into the right bin.

Bins for bathrooms, toilets and washrooms are no different. And whether you are in need of a bathroom bin for the home or bins for busy public washrooms, there are several aspects that need to be considered.

Type of Waste

As with most bins the type of waste that goes into a bin is the fundamental element that defines the design and type of bin required. Much of the waste that goes into bathroom bins, whether at home or in public, are items like tissues, empty toilet rolls and paper towels. For these types of items, the bathroom bin only needs to be very basic – just a receptacle large enough to hold such waste.

However, there are other items that are disposed of in bathrooms and toilet facilities, and these need more consideration.

Sanitary Bins

There are many items used in a bathroom or toilet facility that require secure, hygienic storage. Any items disposed of with bodily fluids such as feminine towels or razors, especially in a public location need to be stored hygienically and securely. Sanitary bins have been designed for such a purpose.

Sanitary bins, are deigned to prevent access by hands or items from spilling out if the bin is knocked over. They are also designed to allow hygienic emptying without the need for people to handle the waste.

Most public washrooms will require both sanitary bins for the cubicles, and waste bins to collect the paper towels and other bathroom waste.

Nappy Bins

Bathroom areas are not the only place where bins of a sanitary nature are needed. Households with young children, nurseries, hospitals and even family hotels, often need nappy bins for parents who use traditional washable nappies. These more eco-friendly baby nappies are having a resurgence as more and more people realise the environmental impact of disposables.

Nappy bins provide a secure receptacle that allows the soiled nappies to be stored until they are washed with a tight fitting lid to prevent smells, and a large enough capacity are all important features of a good nappy bin.

65l nappy bin

Litter is a problem we all have to live with. Walk down any high street and you’ll see dropped crisp packets, food, drinks cans and a whole array of other rubbish on the ground, when often there is a perfectly good litter bin only a few metres away.

Of course, most people use the bins as they’re meant to and don’t drop litter where they’re standing simply because it seems more convenient. Of course, it’s not convenient to drop litter. It’s untidy, unhygienic, diverts resources to cleaning it up that could be better used elsewhere and it ultimately has a massive effect on the state of the planet.

So imagine if we took away all the bins. What would we do? Would we all just drop litter on the street, or would we think more carefully about what waste we create in the first place and recycle more carefully? Either way, we would undoubtedly end up with an even bigger mess than we have at the moment, simply because there’d be fewer waste disposal facilities. It makes you realise just how integral waste facilities such as bins are to the functioning of our every day lives.

When you consider that 12.5 million tonnes of waste was sent to landfill in 2009/2010, it further hammers home the point about how we dispose of the waste we produce. The amount of waste going to landfill is decreasing steadily, which is great news as it means people are recycling more, but this is still a massive statistic. So, there are lots of reasons why using bins correctly and minimising waste is a really good idea. Here are a few of the best:

1)      Using recycling bins and other facilities reduces the amount of waste going to harmful landfill sites.

2)      The material is then recycled instead of junked, meaning there is less stress on primary resources and we all live in a more sustainable manner.

3)      Disposing of cigarette butts in special bins is tidier and contains the smell to one area.

4)      Using high street bins to throw away rubbish while you’re out stops the streets becoming dirty, which helps to keep down rodent problems.

5)      We throw away proportionately more waste at the office than we do at home, so installing proper recycling bins in your workplace will minimise the impact of this and give you more credibility with your clients.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s clear just how important this issue is to all of us.

Of course, recycling is an excellent thing to do: it means we can reuse waste that otherwise would have been trashed, it helps reduce carbon emissions and means we don’t use as many natural resources. But a little bit of time and care needs to go into the recycling process, or else any benefits of doing it could well be lost.

Firstly, it’s important to make sure you’re using the right recycling bin. Often people have different coloured bins for different items of recycling and, increasingly, segmented bins are popping up in shopping centres and other public places, where people are encouraged to recycle plastic, cans and paper in the appropriate bin compartment. This is all well and good, but if someone comes along with half a burger and some leftover chips from a fast food emporium and doesn’t look at which bin is which, there’s a good chance the rubbish will end up in the wrong bin.

This then complicates the recycling process as it takes longer to clean out the inappropriate waste before the recyclable components can be properly processed. This, however, can be easily avoided simply by taking a couple of extra seconds to make sure you’re putting your waste into the right receptacle.

For home use or use in buildings such as offices and schools, it’s a good idea to buy a set of easily identifiable recycling bins that make it obvious what should and shouldn’t be placed in each bin. Particularly in schools, if you’re teaching children about proper waste disposal, it can be a good idea to have images on each bin to make it extra clear what’s what. You can also encourage recycling by putting the regular rubbish bin at a greater distance away from the rest so people will think about recycling before simply trashing the waste.

Another really important waste item you need to be sure goes in the right bin is the cigarette. It’s quite obvious, but you need to be sure these definitely don’t end up in the paper bin as you could end up with a fire hazard on your hands. Cigarette bins should be clearly labelled and accessible to smokers. You should also be sure that batteries don’t end up in the regular waste that goes to landfill as they can leak acid, which is majorly harmful to the environment. Always keep a clearly labelled battery bin specifically for them and recycle them regularly.

Most of this is common sense, but it pays to be aware of the correct procedures for waste disposal to make sure you don’t end up with a calamity on your hands.

While you may not keep a huge amount of waste on your property at any one time, it is definitely worth having decent facilities to do so should the need arise. As well as making sure you have good facilities inside your house – from kitchen bins to waste paper baskets and recycling containers – this also means making sure you have the proper bins required for external use.

The purpose of a good external bin is to not only store your waste until you can dispose of it, but to prevent that waste being contaminated by external factors such as the weather and small animals such as rodents which might otherwise work their way inside your rubbish. It is, therefore, worth investigating the excellent external bin options that are available as they can help you keep your environment clean, hygienic and tidy.

One common and useful external waste container is the free-standing bin. You can get these in a variety of styles so you can choose one to suit your needs. You can also choose from a range of colours so you can either get one that blends into the background or one that stands out if you want to draw people’s attention to the waste facilities available. A lot of free-standing bins also come with a hood designed to keep out the weather while enabling ease of access.

If you choose a dustbin, this comes with an easily removable lid that will store your waste securely until you need access to it. A lot of dustbins also have clipped lids, which are great as it means the lid is secured into place and so there’s no chance of it blowing off in the wind. These bins are also transportable, which is a useful feature if you need to move them around, either to dispose of or collect any waste.

You can also get wall-mounted cigarette bins for external use, which are a good idea if you want to keep cigarette smoke out of your house. They’ll act as a deterrent to people simply dropping their cigarette butts on the ground and will contain the waste associated with smoking to a small area. They also have the added security of being accessed by a key for waste disposal purposes.

These are just a few of the great external waste storage solutions you can make use of to keep your environment in good condition.

It may not be a topic you’ve ever thought about that much, but consider for a moment the importance of proper waste facilities in hospitals. Hospitals are a place where it’s even more vital than normal to keep up hygiene standards and put the bin facilities to the best use possible to help prevent the spread of infection. So what options or key features can you expect to see for hospital bins?

One common solution that lends itself to efficiency, hygiene and ease of use is the open sack holder bin. This is essentially a basic structure or frame (either free-standing or wall-mounted), which has a bin liner strap to hold the bin liner in place. As the bin has no body in the way that conventional bins do, it cuts down on the surface area where bacteria could otherwise breed and also allows hospital staff to see more easily what has been placed in the bin so they can act quickly if there is a suspicious object they may not otherwise have noticed with an opaque bin.

Another ubiquitous feature of hospital bins is the hands-free operating procedure. Probably the best known method here is the pedal bin, which you open with your foot, thereby reducing the risk of contamination from touching a potentially harmful substance. This is also practical if you are carrying a large amount of waste which needs to be thrown away – it’s not always easy to lean down and open a bin when you’ve got your hands full.

A second hands-free bin solution is the sensor bin, which operates by activating an in-built sensor that then lifts the lid for you and later closes it. Again, this is very hygienic as it cuts out the need to touch the bin and makes your job a lot easier as it does the hard work for you.

Recycling and safe disposal of chemicals or other potentially harmful items is as important in hospitals as it is in domestic situations, if not more. This is why one key feature of hospital bins is the fact they are colour-coordinated according to what should be put in them. The colours of hospital bins often differ to domestic bins – for example, they are often white, grey, yellow, orange or black depending what is due to be disposed in them. These are just a few key features that distinguish hospital bins from those you use every day.

You may have noticed that we are not always very good at dealing with snow or icy weather. For all our national spirit of keeping calm and carrying on, a little hint of winter and it seems that the country grinds to an abrupt halt. This is why grit is so important in icy weather: it makes the roads and pavements useable and keeps things moving when otherwise they would just stop.

One thing you can do to help if you run an office, school or other public building, is to invest in a grit bin and keep it stocked up so that when the bad weather comes, you’re prepared. It’s not such an issue in coastal areas, as the salty sea air often goes a long way to preventing the ice becoming a problem, but inland and particularly in towns or cities, everyone should be prepared.

There are some great grit bins available that will make salt or grit storage really easy and accessible for when you need it. Yellow is the most common colour for these bins as it stands out and so, even on the off-chance it gets buried under a snow drift, it’ll be easily found. You can also get a grit bin in beige if you want it to blend in a little more.

The typical grit bin holds two hundred litres of grit, meaning that you can pack in a fair amount. It features a sturdy design, which is great as it means you can be sure it will stand up to extreme weather conditions. The fact it is made out of plastic is also great as this ensures you can easily brush off any snow that collects on it and access the stored grit with ease.

Grit bins all have secure lids that keep out any bad weather, which will stop the grit from getting wet and ruined while it’s being stored. The lids also open wide and generally stay open until you specifically close them, which is great for access – you don’t have to worry about the lid thumping shut on you as you try to access the grit. It also means you can get a large shovel inside to speed up the removal or restocking process – a handy feature when you need to access the contents in a hurry.

So, it may not be possible to predict the weather (or the response of the rest of the country), but you can be sure that as long as you have a fully-stocked grit bin handy, you’ll be prepared no matter what happens.