The client

Edinburgh City Council

The background

• Edinburgh City Council was launching a communal food waste collection initiative for residents of Portobello, a suburb on the outskirts of the city.
• Food waste can easily be recycled, however, complications with collection have hindered communal collection attempts in the past.
• Food waste can be dense which means that collection containers need to be smaller in volume due to weight constraints.
• Food will also decompose rapidly, which means that collection points need to protect the public from the contents of the bins.

“The swift response more than lived up to Egbert Taylor’s reputation. Since their delivery we haven’t had a single problem; the food collection initiative is proving to be quite the success.”

Riet Garsed, Project Officer at Edinburgh City Council

The project

When Edinburgh City Council decided to launch the food collection scheme it was aware of the issues of weight and speed of decomposition. The council approached us to design a bespoke solution for the project. Drawing on 50 years of research and development experience, we were able to work closely with the council to develop collection points that were suitable for food collection within just twoweeks of the initial briefing.

The result

Within two weeks, we had developed a bespoke lid that kept the contents concealed from the public during operation.

• The innovative lid design features a pullout, hinged flap that has a shelf attached at an angle. As the flap is opened the shelf rises up to the opening, ensuring that the bin remains sealed and the user does not come into contact with its contents.
• Once the waste is placed on the shelf the flap is closed and waste is safely deposited.
• The lids were supplied with the Taylor ContinentalTM 500L container and introduced across Portobello with great success.

“The support that we received from Taylor Bins was superb. Given the time constraints that they had to work to they generated a fantastic product.”

Riet Garsed, Project Officer at Edinburgh City Council