Keeping the borough clean

We’ve invested in 120 solar-powered compactor bins in November 2024 to help tackle litter, reduce our carbon footprint and improve the look of our town centres.

The installation and maintenance of the bins, along with monitoring systems, were funded through the community infrastructure levy, which is a charge paid by developers to help provide essential facilities, infrastructure and services.

Benefits of the new bins

• Hold more rubbish: These bins are also known as Big Belly bins because they hold up to five times more rubbish than traditional bins. They use solar power to compact the waste inside and alert the Cleansing team when they are nearly full.
• Reduce street clutter: The Big Belly bins can replace a larger number of standard bins in areas of high footfall, allowing us to reduce street clutter on busy pavements.
• Reduce fuel costs and emissions: By reducing the number of journeys needed to empty litter bins, they will reduce fuel costs and help us to reduce our carbon emissions by up to 70%.
• Reallocation of resources: The bins free up time for the Cleansing team to focus on other work, such as litter picking, clearing up fly tips and graffiti.
• Save money: We anticipate significant revenue savings, however, it will take six months to monitor the data to identify and realise all the savings from the new technology.
• Attractive and easy to use: Hands free and wheelchair accessible, the bins are designed with eye-catching wraps and some will even talk back.