On a recent holiday to Spain I noticed that the end of the street bins on wheels had been replaced with bright new containers for rubbish. They were colour coded according to what needed to go into them. Certainly they were an improvement on the old bins that used to wander around a bit and rarely had the lids closed.
The replacements are summarised here:
- The vandals would love to wreck them. The arsonists would love to set fire to them.
- The collection vehicles come to the location several times a day and create noise and traffic problems. (the bottles etc. are dropped into the lorry from about 20 feet. The hydraulics are noisy. The emptying is done from alongside.)
- Residents and businesses have to take their sorted rubbish to the bins.
- Antisocial people will dump other stuff alongside them - the one man operation cannot deal with this rogue rubbish.
- The cost of manufacture and servicing them is not "green".
- Would you want one outside your house? Would you want one too far away?
So - make the most of your wheelie bin and live with the collection rotas. It must be better than what might follow.