[Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough.
- West Bromwich (England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1964
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![materially assists collection, simplifies replacement of worn and dangerous bins but the most important advantage is that it enables the department to experiment with new materials and vary the bin size if it seems advantageous. In 1963 trials were commenced with a few hundred cheap plastic bins designed for the domestic market and available through irohpiongers and similar tradesmen. These are still giving satis¬ factory service and they encouraged us to co-operate with a local engineering concern of national repute in the manufacture of bigger and stronger plastic bins desjgned particularly for the needs of local authorities. Successful trials with black plastic bins of 314 cu. ft capacity- in 1964 led us to recommend that no metal bins be bought in 1965 and it seems that in time these or paper sacks gradually will oust the metal bin not only in West Bromwich but nationally. This will take ten or more years, to accomplish. Examination of the numbers of bins supplied since the mun¬ icipal bin scheme was commenced in 1951 shows that - (a) The average number issued annually was 2,733. (b) Number of bins in use (approximately) 31,240. (c) Average “life” of a bin 11 years It should be noted that the total number of bins includes about 1200 which are plastic and their useful “life” is as yet unknown. There is evidence that bins are not lasting as long as formerly and one factor is the tendency for new houses to be equipped with bins of poor quality which require replacement much earlier than the British Standard Specification bin provided by the authority. The Size of Dustbins In 1959/60 a full analysis of house refuse in Smoke Control Area No. 1 revealed that in the Winter and Spring quarters the weekly volume of refuse per house exceeded 2]/2 cubic feet which' is the size of the bin. Even in the Autunm quarter it was 2.4 cubic feet so in designing the plastic bin the opportunity was taken to increase the size to 3!4 cubic feet in order to better accommodate the weekly output of refuse and avoid the necessity for two journeys to a house to collect “overflow” which tends to be prevalent after Bank Holidays and retards collection very considerably. The larger bin in mild steel would have been considerably heavier and would have resulted in a significant increase in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30260073_0148.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
