The need to upgrade the public bins in the town is an issue that the Chamber has been advocating for some time.
There is an ongoing problem of litter around the town and in the harbour area in particular at busy times of year. Our current bins cannot cope but there is a solution which has been successfully implemented in many towns and cities across the UK and worldwide. Big Belly Bins have a built in solar-powered compactor which gives them at least 5 times the capacity of our existing bins. They also have seagull-proof entry hoppers and even call the operator when they are ready to be emptied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im2hBVHClps
We have been lobbying relevant authorities to take this initiative forward and the good news is that at the council’s Planning and Regeneration Committee on Monday 7th September members resolved to recommend to Full Council that Brixham Town Council pursues the Big Belly Bins around the Harbour area as recommended by BrixhamFuture. The full case is given below:
The Issue
Brixham is a victim of both its own success and of its mixed heritage of fishing port and tourist destination. During the season (May to September) in particular, the town experiences huge uplifts in refuse and hence demands on refuse collection. Unfortunately, without criticism of the local operators, the refuse collection strategy fails to keep up with the demand, even though the harbourside in particular benefits from 4 collections daily. This leads to litter being dropped/deposited/blown on the streets, around and in the harbour.
The main source of this litter is located in particular around the harbour because our bins are in the main
open topped. This leads to our seagull population not only aggressively attacking the litter on the streets and sometimes the visitors, but actively removing as much food/litter from the bins to satisfy their daily diets.
The Solution
Big Belly Bins have been introduced to seaside resorts such as Sidmouth, Exmouth, Seaton, Bournemouth and St Ives. Their solar panel produces enough power to operate the mechanism inside which compresses all the waste allowing for an increased capacity and advises the refuse collectors when they are full. This therefore helps clean up Brixham, improving the image and environment. It diminishes the opportunities that seagulls have to feed as well as the seagull nuisance element. The major benefit has to be the cost saving. There is potential to reduce the total man hours by up to 50% on refuse collection. This time can then be reallocated to other key projects, for example; street cleaning, gardening etc.