City of London eliminates overfull bins with Bigbelly
Find out how we helped City of London Corporation eliminate overfull bins within London’s renowned ‘Square Mile’ district
The client
City of London Corporation
The brief
- Eliminate overfull bins within London’s renowned ‘Square Mile’ district
- Retain the City of London’s global image as a clean, forward thinking and world-class destination
- Make depositing waste as easy and as clean as possible for those entering one of London’s most densely populated areas
The project
The City of London is now busier than New York’s Times Square, attracting a footfall of around 450,000 people including residents, tourists and London’s diverse working population each and every day.
However, one thing that each of those individuals have in common is a need to dispose of waste whilst on the go.
Faced with overfull bins every 20 minutes using traditional litterbins, which was generating direct complaints to the local authority, City of London Corporation decided to replace 70 traditional litterbins with 50 Bigbelly smart stations following a successful trial in order to make the City of London as clean and vibrant as possible.
“We spend over £3.5 million a year cleaning the City’s streets. The Square Mile is the world’s leading international financial centre and its workers and residents rightly expect the street scene to be of a very high standard in which to live and work.”
Steve Presland, Transportation and Public Realm Director at City of London
The result
Since City of London Corporation switched to Bigbelly the local authority has:
- Eliminated over full bins
- Significantly reduced waste-related complaints
- Taken the pressure off waste collection teams who were having to empty traditional bins every 20 minutes; now, through Bigbelly’s compaction technology, the units self-compact to increase the unit’s capacity by at least four times
- Helped make depositing waste easier by as wide a demographic as possible including children, the elderly and those with disabilities, by installing foot-operated Bigbelly units in high footfall areas such as the Guildhall, Royal Exchange and Whittington Garden
- Reduced the number of bins lining the Square Mile’s streets
“Real time alerts and intelligence from each of the Bigbelly units we have deployed is undoubtedly very useful, however for us, the beauty of Bigbelly is its compaction technology. In some of the areas where Bigbelly is situated we have one unit handling what used to be collected by four traditional bins. More importantly, London needs to be viewed as a place where businesses can locate their headquarters and a city that competes on a global level. To do this, you need to provide clean and tidy streets. With Bigbelly, we now have the tools to be able to guarantee this and ensure that there is no longer any risk of overfull bins.”
Jim Graham, Assistant Director of Cleansing at City of London Corporation