Britain has the largest number of public parks and open spaces than any other country in Europe. There are dozens of urban parklands in many of our major cities and conurbations. However, as pleasurable as these urban natural oasis are they are expensive to maintain.
Councils and local authorities have to invest huge amounts of tax payers money in ensuring these public spaces are kept clean, tidy and safe. And one of the biggest enemies of this perennial task – is litter.
Littering costs local authorities a fortune and unlike in the city, it is a particularly challenging job to clean it up in parks and open spaces because of the large areas involved. Not only is litter in parks unattractive but also some litter can pose a hazard to the many children and families that use the parks. Litter can also attract vermin which can be difficult to get rid of and can cause its own problems.
Litter bins
Your number one defence in ensuring any public area is litter free is the public waste bin. Litter bins will help people act responsible when it comes disposing of their waste – as long as they are clearly visible. A good quantity of large outdoor bins will prevent a lot of the litter that can be carelessly discarded but attention needs to be paid to the location of the bins, the size and the frequency of emptying.
Ensuring areas of high usage such as near where ice cream vendors operate will prevent many of the litter problems that can occur in those areas. But other types of bin should also be considered.
Gardening bins and other outdoor bins should also be plentiful for the park’s workers as having to return to bins too frequently is time consuming.
Some thought should also go into what to do with any sanitary and hazardous waste. This should obviously be removed as soon as possible, taking every precaution, and a good sanitary bin would be a good idea to ensure it can be stored safely until it can be properly disposed of.
Other Litter Prevention
Dog fouling is another problem in park areas so ensuring there are facilities to dispose of this type of waste will, as with littering, will help encourage dog owners to be responsible.