Liverpool Council has confirmed plans to introduce new underground super-bins across the city.
The council's cabinet yesterday formally agreed the radical plans that will see an 'underground revolution' of 'subterranean super-bins' rolled out across the city. The local authority is hoping the move will tackle major litter and dumping issues in Liverpool.
Now that the landmark plans have been approved, we've rounded up what you need to know.
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What are underground super-bins?
The name is fairly self-explanatory. They are huge, communal bins that store large amounts of waste underground.
The super-bins come in a variety of sizes, the biggest being able to take up to 5,000 litres of waste, the equivalent to a week’s worth of refuse for 20 houses. The uniquely designed smart bins, which are made of steel or reinforced plastic to reduce odours, will issue an alarm when full and will be emptied with a crane lift via a release mechanism in its base. It is estimated the emptying and re-installation process will take less than 10 minutes.
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The bins will be fully accessible to those with limited strength, or mobility, some operated with foot pedals, others with ground-level mechanisms. Cleanliness is a priority, so no bins will be operated by hand. The super-bin scheme dovetails with the city council’s £15m alleyways programme which has seen hundreds of acres of inner city land, formerly used as dumping grounds, reclaimed by residents.
Where will they be rolled out?
The scheme has been designed to create a cleaner waste solution for 27,000 terraced households, in hundreds of Liverpool's inner-city streets, which do not have the space to use a wheelie bin. These huge bins placed in 140 locations in densely built-up areas, many of which will replace some of the existing temporary communal bins.
The city council is hoping this new approach will radically reduce the issue of ripped black bin bags spilling out on to streets and blighting neighbourhoods. This perennial problem creates hundreds of complaints a week and requires extra clean-up resources to be deployed.
There are a total of 18 sites initially identified as the realistic 'quick win' options for Underground Refuse Systems across 8 city wards. These include one site in Anfield, six sites around Central ward, three streets in County ward, One in the Kensington and Fairfield area, three streets in Picton, One in Tuebrook, two in Everton and one in Kirkdale.
There are a further 11 sites that have been identified for the introduction of the Crane Lift Refuse Stores. These include three sites in Anfield, two in County, three in Princess Park, two in Riverside and one in Tuebrook.
When will they start being rolled out?
Now that the cabinet has formally approved the plans, plans for their arrival in locations around the city can get start in earnest.
The council will first undertake consultations with local communities before installing the underground bins. The first phase of the super-bins will be installed at the end of summer. Some locations may require experimental traffic orders to ensure ease of access for residents and a further consultation exercise would be held.
Why are they being introduced?
Simply put, because Liverpool has major issues with dumping, waste, litter and vermin. The local authority hopes the super-bin scheme will save a huge amount of time and resources in the years to come by drastically cutting secondary waste related issues such as rats, flies and smell associated to black bag waste disposal. Black bin bag waste has also been identified as one of the contributory factors in the city having a litter problem three times the national average. The council recently launched a partnership with Keep Britain Tidy to reduce those levels and help clean up the city.
What does the council say about the plan?
Joanne Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, who is also the political lead for Waste Management in the City Region, said: “I want Liverpool to be a zero-waste city and to achieve that we need to be smarter in how we enable people to dispose of what they generate in their homes. These subterranean super-bins are going to make a huge difference to the quality of life for thousands of families across huge swathes of our inner-city neighbourhoods.
“We need to consult with communities on the locations but when installed these bins will have both an immediate and dramatic impact on the cleanliness of our streets and will save the council a huge amount of time and money for many years to come. They are an environmental and economic win-win.”
Councillor Abdul Qadir, Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods, said: “Due to Liverpool having so many terraced streets, particularly to the north and east of the city centre, we’ve left thousands of families with the limited option of putting black bin bags on the street or in community bins which are easily accessed.
“This has been a recipe for a litter festival at times which in turn has placed extra pressure on council resources, which is a really inefficient way to handle this. Officers have been tasked to think more creatively to design a solution that gets round the limitations of these terraced streets and these underground smart bins are a great step forward.
"They brilliantly demonstrate how Liverpool can lead the rest of the county in the fight against litter and we already have other councils with similar communities looking to visit us to learn from our programme. We know from our work with Keep Britain Tidy that we need to bring litter levels down across the city and this investment will be a key element enabling people to play their part.”
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