The business about litter bins in Crawley, as disclosed in the Broadfield Forum, was in the local rag this week. I am still in two minds about it: I can see the logic of it but can also see how difficult it would be to prove one way or the other. Litter is one part of an inter-connected system which also includes bins (number of bins, type, locations, emptying frequency) enforcement, street sweeping regimes, public attitudes and education, supply of material to turn into waste, and all sorts of other variables. How can you be 100% certain which factors are having an effect?

As I said before, we still seem to have loads of bins in the town centre and the memorial gardens, and an increase in the number bins on Broadfield Barton so I am not convinced this is actually being tried here anyway.

I am only returning to the subject now because I noticed something while I was on the Isle of Wight: a complete absence of litter. When I noticed this I realised that I had not seen any bins either. And then I realised that there were actually quite a few bins but they were not as apparent as the ones here are, which is why I didn’t see them.

Our bins are big, round and in the way. They stand in the middle of pedestrian areas or pavements and can be a bloody nuisance when its busy, especially with all the other street furniture cluttering up everywhere. A lot of the IoW bins seemed to be against walls, square-shaped and covered at the top with slots in the side. Others had hinged lids on them which you have to lift to put rubbish in, and some of them were plain wood which just blended in with the surroundings.

It might be that the lids on bins are a reaction to the fact that the population of the Island is about 150,000 people and (what seems to be) 500,000 rooks and crows. A slight exaggeration maybe, but it does seem like something out of Hitchcock at times.

This is just a theory, but this sort of design and placement of bins could be a major contribution to the tidiness. One argument against bins is that people ball up their rubbish, lob it towards the bin and miss. Well if the bins are big, round and open-topped and then placed right in the middle its very tempting to treat them like basketball nets: the design and placement practically encourages such behaviour. I myself often lob rubbish into the bins from a distance – obviously I never miss.

A closed bin would carry no such temptation so the problem of us chucking rubbish in the general direction of bins so it will then collect on the ground and blow around would be greatly reduced but without the need for everyone to carry all their trash with them until they get home – or pass a convenient bush or low wall. (I used to live near the town centre and had a low wall at the front so I know what I’m talking about! My front garden was always filling up with chip wrappers). As an added bonus there would be less smell and less chance of birds and rats pulling the rubbish out.

Its only a theory but I think its as valid as the others. If there is a debate about the pros and cons of bins I’m going to come down on the side of trying covered bins rather than doing away with them completely.