Cllr Stuart Collins introducing BigBelly bins. Pic, Croydon Council
Solar-powered BigBelly rubbish bins have appeared on Croydon streets to help tackle the borough’s litter problem.
As part of the council’s Don’t Mess with Croydon – Take Pride campaign, a £1.28m capital investment in street cleaning has been made.
To tackle issues such as fly-tipping and other environmental crimes the council is rolling out a wide range of initiatives including the installation of 80 super-capacity, solar-powered BigBelly street bins.
Great to see new big belly bins at Fiveways Junction and by #Waddon railway station thanks to @CroydonLabour Council and @CleanStreetStu. pic.twitter.com/h7skjOgPXu
— Waddon Labour (@Waddon) 20 March 2017
These environmentally-friendly bins are for street litter only and can hold eight times the amount of a standard street bin, thanks to a solar-powered compactor inside.
The compactors automatically press down the waste inside the bins “freeing up our contractors to spend more time cleaning the streets and litter-picking”, says Councillor Stuart Collins, cabinet member for clean, green Croydon in a press release.
Following the example of cities such as Nottingham, Bournemouth and Kingston, Croydon now has these brand-new bins that can last a month on just eight hours’ sunlight.
BigBelly bins also have an in-built sensor that enables them to send an email alert when they need emptying and gathers data allowing staff to plan where new bins may be needed, based on which are the most- and least-used.
This green campaign in Croydon has proved successful as 80 per cent of fly-tips are now removed in 48 hours (as opposed to just 3 per cent prior to 2014). The council has also issued more than 1,700 fixed-penalty notices, more than 50 per cent of which were for fly-tipping, and has prosecuted 146 people since launching the initiative in summer 2014.
Cllr Collins also appealed to people’s environmental conscience, asking everyone to “simply do the right thing and put their litter in the bin, where it belongs.”
“We’re doing our bit by investing in street cleaning and upgrading our street bins to Bigbellys so that there are plenty of bins around to use in busy places, so please get on board with Don’t Mess with Croydon and put them to good use.”
