As someone who is responsible for championing an alternative method to waste collection involving multiple manual daily collections by multiple collection trucks, you may feel that my objectivity is somewhat skewed – however I firmly believe that the inner-city bin is in danger of becoming obsolete.
Of course, to address the headline, I don’t believe that all developments need to rule out the bin; that wouldn’t be practical or economically viable. However there are an increasing number of developments where this question is relevant, and here’s why.
In the main, bins address waste collection. The bigger the development, the greater the number of bins a local authority provides. In many cases this is not a sustainable, long-term or even practical solution.
Why? Because urbanisation has all but rendered the humble bin obsolete in densely populated areas. A lack of space means that cities can no longer develop outwards, the result of which means that developments are being pushed skyward placing more pressure on developments’ waste collection strategies as a result of the high unit density per footprint ratio.
Development
Many cities in the UK are currently building at densities of 250 homes-per-square hectare. Some parts of London are even developing 400 homes per hectare. At this level you have to ask ‘where are all the bins going to go?’
In cases where you have 8,500 bins on a development at all times, the local authority will require at least 12 refuse collection vehicles working to full capacity every day to empty them. And that’s before you factor in the time and cost associated with physically moving them from where they’re stored to the collection vehicle, which will only reduce the vehicles’ efficiency.
The good news is that local authorities now understand the challenge they face and are beginning to act accordingly in order to leave a waste legacy for their borough to be proud of 25 years from now.
After all, blindly continuing to roll out bins across developments that can no longer physically house them is not only irresponsible but also at odds with the perception of the UK’s cities being clean, forward thinking and globally competitive.
Continuing as we are will lead to streets lined with rows upon rows of overfull bins and waste collection that is clunky, manually intensive and dangerous; none of which present the UK in its best light or showcase it as a modern, clean and competitive country.
In the 21st century, and when there is more pressure than ever on the UK to be able to compete on a global platform, it is time to reconsider the use of waste collection practices based on the horse and cart approach. The alternatives exist. We just need to adopt alternative methods of thinking and be prepared to embrace them.
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