Overflowing communal bins creating a 'green slum'

People in a neighbourhood where household wheelie bins have been replaced by communal bins fear the area is turning into the UK's first "green slum".

"Mini-recycling centres" were first dotted around St Pauls in Bristol 15 years ago after concerns the narrow pavements did not have enough space for regular bins.

But in that time the number of homes in the area has shot up from 2,500 to 4,000, partly as large houses have been converted into smaller flats.

The communal bins are often now overflowing, residents say, and are a magnet for fly-tipping and vermin. The city council is now conducting a review of the situation.

Speaking at a meeting of the council's environment policy committee on 26 February, St Pauls resident Pavlos Kyriacou said: "Why was a failed experiment allowed to persist for so long? Please don't let St Pauls become the UK's first green slum."

Kyriacou said communal bins led to significantly less recycling rather than more.

"If you place a skip at the end of a residential street, people will fill it. If you empty it twice a week, you create a culture," he said.

Tara Miran, another resident, said: "Communal bins and uncollected waste in St Pauls are contributing to vermin, odour, unsafe pavements, and poorer mental health and wellbeing."

Ken Lawson, the council's head of waste, said he was waiting on the findings of a review on how to reduce the number of communal bins that is expected to come back later this month.

Addressing campaigners, he said: "All the skips, as you call them, we will be looking to get rid of them where we can."

Among the outcomes of a review into recycling in Bristol conducted last year was extra cash allocated for clearing up fly-tipping, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Another plan is a collection service for places like flats above shops on busy roads, where residents will be given sacks to leave their rubbish in, as often space for normal bins is lacking.

This will be rolled out in parts of St Pauls where council bosses think it is "operationally feasible".

The council is also exploring whether landlords could be held accountable for placing bins on their properties instead of the street.

Options will be presented to councillors in the summer.

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