Three feet high and fly-proof, Brisbane’s first council bins hit the streets in 1928, and how they’ve grown when compared with the latest incarnations unveiled in City Hall’s $19.5 million litter strategy.
Brisbane’s newest public bins are triple the size of the old 80-litre trash cans, covered in decorative casing, and better able to handle modern waste much changed by the introduction of fast food and recycling, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.
Unlike their predecessors, which were built with light waste such as tram tickets and newpapers in mind, the new 240-litre wheelie bins had to cope with heavy loads of takeaway rubbish in high-use areas such as Fortitude Valley and suburban shopping strips.
But Cr Quirk said his “holistic approach” to rubbish management had already seen the amount of litter drop by 34 per cent.
“In fact, last year alone we emptied more than 2964 tonnes of waste and 245 tonnes of recyclables from public bins across Brisbane, which is a good sign that they’re being used,” Cr Quirk said.
“However there’s still more that can be done to reduce littering in this city and I want to make sure we do everything in our power to make that happen.
“And by tripling the size of bins in this city in combination with record spending on cleaning we reduce the number of excuses people have to throw their rubbish on the ground.”
Cr Quirk said there were upgrades to about 80 public bin locations planned across Brisbane, though the smaller previous trash cans would not go to waste, and would be relocated to new sites with less demand.
He said waste collection methods had also changed as council now had a better understanding of the behaviours of users.
Along with tripling the size of the CBD’s bins, the Lord Mayor introduced a fleet of Queensland-first litter vacuums into council’s ever-growing arsenal of cleaning equipment earlier this year.
“I have a vision for a cleaner and greener Brisbane and over the next four years we will also be rolling out $1 million worth of new cleaning equipment, including more street sweepers and water tankers,” he said.
