Original Email:
Dear Department,
I would like to raise a concern which has come to my attention even more since I was elected last year in May.
You may have realised that around our borough we have open top bins, with no lids on them. Although this may be more cost effective for the council, and can be more easily emptied by council staff, I have found that actually these bins generate more litter than those bins with closed tops such as those attached on this email.
With open tops, I tend to find litter scattered around the Circus area of Southgate, and also that residents are increasingly messaging me to express their stress at the way littering is becoming more and more frequent around the area. I have found that when I walk around my area, people do tend to put litter in the bin, however when bins become overflowed the rubbish tends to leave from the bin and thus move around the area where the bin was.
I encourage you to go down to Southgate at around 8pm onwards at night to see the increased litter in the area that is making our area look increasingly untidy.
I would like to know if the council are looking in future to do a waste management system similar to that of boroughs such as Westminster, which have both refuse and recyclable as an option for waste on public roads. This will be better for our environment, will have lids on them, and also will be more beneficial for all our areas as waste stays within them.
I hope we can accommodate this.
Kind Regards,
Cllr. Stephanos Ioannou
Response:
Dear Councillor Ioannou
Thank you for your e-mail regarding the style of litter bin sited around the borough.
We currently use two different styles, open-top and domed-top. The reason for the choice of open-top litter bins was to make it as easy as possible for those walking by to deposit their litter. We use domed-top in areas where dog fouling is regularly deposited in the litter bin and where are and bags of household waste are placed in the bin. I have asked the area senior charge hands to consider changing open-top to domed-top bins in the sites where wind-blown litter from the bins is a problem.
We have trialled the combined recycling / litter bins in the past but found the recycling was too contaminated with normal litter to be processed. As the need for recycling becomes more important and more accepted by residents we are considering another trial of these bins in the future.
Yours sincerely