Council officers hope that a radical trial to anchor banks to the ground with specially made posts will put a stop to a recent series of bring bank thefts. Since April this year, 13 bins have been stolen from street micro-recycling centres, with the latest raid just last week (29/05/03).
 A trial bring bank anchored to the ground |
One theory is that the banks may be repainted and resold within the second hand market. The current national security situation has also led the police to consult its anti-terrorism branch. As a result, officers policing the area have been alerted to where the council's official banks should be.
Recycling manager Phil Robson told letsrecycle.com that a more common problem was for banks to be temporarily removed and then returned full of trade waste. “Banks being removed and contaminated with waste is a very common problem with builders in Westminster,” he said.
In October 2002 a trial began to counter this contamination issue which saw banks in SW1 anchored to a concrete base using posts made by Taylors. Of the trial's results so far, Mr Robson said: “It has worked out pretty well. It stops the banks wandering. If we can get funding, we will expand those measures where appropriate.”
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan police said: “There is no specific intelligence relating to the bins being used for terrorist purposes.”
Mixed glass
In a separate measure designed to combat the problem of high contamination, Westminster this week began replacing all its segregated glass banks – which currently collect clear, green and brown cullet separately – with mixed glass banks.
Currently, segregated glass from Westminster's bring banks is sorted at Cory Environmental's Smugglers Wharf MRF for Berryman and Valpak's Valiant recycling operation. But the new arrangement will see mixed glass being taken to Days Aggregates in Battersea on behalf of Valiant.
Mr Robson said one of the main reasons for the change was to reduce street clutter. “By changing from segregated to mixed glass, we get one less bin on very crowded streets,” he said. As the glass will now be used for aggregates rather than re-melt for the container industry, the material's high level of contamination may also be more tolerable. “We have also got a lot of issues about contamination. There are a lot of restaurants and bars who surreptitiously sneak waste into the bins,” Mr Robson explained.
In November 2002, the council renewed its waste collection contract with Onyx Environmental. The new contract, worth 224 million, is to run for seven years from September 2003. Plans for expansion of recycling services include increasing the total number of micro-recycling centres from 98 to more than 150.
Westminster's recycling rate for 2001/02 was 9.4% and its target for the end of 2003/4 is 12%.
Register for free to comment