Monday, December 05, 2016

DOES THERE NEED TO BE A RETHINK OVER BRIGG LITTER BINS AT THE BIG CHRISTMAS EVENT?


Ken Harrison, of the Brigg Matters newsletter, took these litter bin pictures on Friday night.
The images capture the scene on the evening of the Christmas lights switch-on, fair and late night shopping.
Brigg Blog then took some pictures early the next day when some bins were overflowing and discarded food cartons and wrappers could be seen on town centre streets.
So, already looking ahead to December 2017, is the provision of litter bins sufficient to meet the heavy demand resulting from Brigg's major spectator event?
"Do we need better facilities next time?" Ken asks.
Some bins on Friday evening were actually full BEFORE the Christmas lights were even switched on.
It would be quite wrong to assume that everyone will put every piece on litter into a bin.
No matter how many bins are dotted about, there's absolutely no guarantee that people will use them.
However, Brigg Blog had flagged up the removal of several town centre bins well before last Friday. And they were not replaced before the big day. That clearly did not help the situation.
Some town centre visitors with disposable fast food cartons and cups appeared to leave  a coded message by placing their rubbish on top of where the litter bin should have been (see picture below).
Maybe next year someone could arrange for some galvanised dustbins, old oil drums or wheelie-bins to be dotted about the Market Place, Wrawby Street and Bigby Street to complement the existing litter bins.
By then we trust the currently "missing" bins will  have returned.
We certainly would NOT say that the town centre was litter-strewn early on Saturday morning when the general market was opening for business and the first shoppers of the day were out and about. Some litter had been placed in refuse sacks and left alongside a few of the bins.
A BIG CLEAN-UP WAS UNDERTAKEN LATER ON SATURDAY, WITH ALL THE OVERFLOWING BINS EMPTIED AND RUBBISH COLLECTED. 
However, we believe that, as Ken suggests, Brigg needs more in the way of bins at next year's event. 
Do you agree?


Four pictures taken by Ken to show overflowing bins in Brigg town centre on Friday night.



Four pictures below taken by Brigg Blog around 9am the following morning (Saturday)....


Perhaps whoever had finished their takeaway was looking to put the carton into this litter bin on Wrawby Street. However, the "business end" of the bin was removed some weeks ago - a fact flagged up by Brigg Blog more than once.

Rubbish alongside and on top of an already full litter bin near the Wrawby Street entrance to St John's Church, with a half-eaten takeaway left on the public seat nearby.

The Buttercross clock shows 9.05am on Saturday morning as a shopper passes an overflowing bin and a collection of "side rubbish."

A discarded drinks carton near the Monument. Would the person who dropped it have popped it into the litter bin's "business end" if it hadn't been removed?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

the emptying of bins is done by highways extra bins are available on a thurs market so these could also be deployed any extra bins could be deployed by brigg lions who run the event

Ken Harrison said...

Re The plastic lamppost bins.....there appears to be a design malfunction with these litter bins....they don't appear to be able to cope with heavy duty.
Just been to Sunny Sunny in the fog....there are a number of similar bins each in a various state of collapse. Essentially, unfit, or unsuitable for their expected purpose.....perhaps useful in a children's playground where folks aren't trying to ram in takeaway cartons.

Ken Harrison said...

Re The stand alone bins...what is encouraging is that most folks seemed to intent of putting their litter in the bin, but with the bins being already full, folks didn't have much choice other than to leave their litter near the bins.
It's a good job that it wasn't windy overnight.
A general concern is that town bins always appear to be full....not certain how often they are emptied....but if they are continously operating to their optimum capacity, perhaps we need bigger capacity bins, thus amelioration the demand for regular emptying.
Also watch out for retailers filling bins with their commercial waste.
The newer cylindrical bins do not have a facility for disposing fag ends...no smoker is going to throw their stub directly into a litter bin, so often, these bins are left with a festoon decoration of upturned filter tips on their lid.....bet the bins were chosen by a nonsmoker.
Why not pre-empt the litter on market days? Instead of traders piling up separate piles of various waste, surely a simple cage, or a commercial wheelie bin would suffice to contain much of such litter and subsequently reduce the amount of wind-blown detritus about the town the following day.
Go Green! Folks like choices and perhaps separate bins for recyclable waste would act as a incentive ....a separate bin for cans: this could be child-friendly - big duck thing with a sign saying 'feed me'....teach them young.
Once we've sorted out the town's litter problem, we then need to sort out the traffic in the pedestrian zone.

Ken Harrison said...

Re The plastic lamppost bins.....there appears to be a design malfunction with these litter bins....they don't appear to be able to cope with heavy duty.
Just been to Sunny Sunny in the fog....there are a number of similar bins each in a various state of collapse. Essentially, unfit, or unsuitable for their expected purpose.....perhaps useful in a children's playground where folks aren't trying to ram in takeaway cartons.