Unsightly street rubbish bins overflowing with supermarket bags of household and commercial rubbish are becoming a regular sight around the city.

A trial is about to start aimed at discouraging this kind of rubbish “dumping” in bins on our city streets. Soon, selected bins will be sporting a new sticker to enforce the message that street bins are not communal rubbish dumps for household and comercial rubbish.

The street litter bins are intended for just that — street litter.

“The bins with the new stickers will be monitored to see whether the stickers effectively discourage people from dumping their bags of rubbish. If the stickers work, we will put them on all of the city bins for a wider 12-month trial” says Richard Bailey, City Streets Amenities Manager.

As well as the stickers, volunteers from the Keep Christchurch Beautiful initiative will visit businesses located close to a street bin that has been used as a dumping site, to raise awareness.

“Some people are relying on the city’s street bins to dispose of their household, and even commercial, rubbish,” Mr Bailey says. “This results in escalating costs to ratepayers, the environment, and to the look and feel of our city — and it is illegal.”

“Not only are ratepayers copping escalating bills for having the bins emptied more regularly – sometimes every day – there is a serious cost to the environment. Rubbish from street bins is taken to the landfill, yet much of the dumped household and commercial rubbish could easily be recycled.

“Items such as cardboard boxes and paper tend to make up over 50 per cent of the dumped household rubbish – even greater amounts of recyclable materials are dumped by businesses” says Mr Bailey.

Dumping household and domestic rubbish in city bins is not a new problem, and the Council has had the unpleasant job of collecting the dumped bags and sorting through the contents. “Although we hate doing this job, it is the only way to identify the culprit – short of catching someone in the act. From collecting the discarded envelopes in their rubbish, we send them a letter to warn them that dumping is illegal and that they can be fined” says Mr Bailey.