Influencing Bin Policy
- simon35643
- May 26, 2025
- 3 min read
What have we been up to?
On Thursday 22 May, City of Edinburgh Council's Transport & Environment Committee met, with one of the items on the agenda being the annual review of the Neighbourhood Environment Services Policy, part of which was the Bin Siting Sub-Policy.
Thanks to everyone who completed our user survey in 2024, we knew that bins and litter were a top concern of our community. We regularly engage with the Waste department and know that they were always happy to help where they could, but were ultimately bound by policy and budget constraints.
At one of our monthly meetings, Councillor Ed Thornley had recommended providing a deputation to the Committee as part of the review.
We engaged with other Friends groups, let the Edinburgh Green Space Forum know of our intentions, and drafted a briefing to submit ahead of time, a copy of which can be downloaded below.
On the day, our Chair, Tommy Mclean, and Committee Member, Jade Hamilton-Thomas went along to City Chambers to speak directly to the committee, albeit only given 3 minutes to discuss our key requests:
Designate play parks and sports pitches as potential “strategic locations” for bin siting.
Undertake a consultation on bin siting, capacity and waste management within public green spaces.
Raise concerns regarding litter on sports pitches with Edinburgh Leisure.
Confirm whether CEC intends to continue the rollout of bin sensors.
Develop a public litter education programme in conjunction with local community groups.
We had some great questions from one of our own Councillors, Euan Hyslop, as well as Councillor Hal Osler and Councillor Iain Whyte to really understand what we wanted around the policy.
What was the outcome?
We were delighted on the day to see amendments from our own councillor Euan Hyslop, which acknowledged that the risks of vehicles in park can be mitigated with light vehicles and also had the following added to the policy:
"Where bins have previously been removed from the centre of a park, Waste and Parks Teams will work with ‘Friends of’ parks groups to have them reinstated if the group wishes so."
Additionally, councillor Iain Whyte of Craigentinny & Duddingston submitted an amendment to agree the current Neighbourhood Environment Services Policy as an interim policy subject to a period of consultation with Community Councils and relevant community groups, including Friends of parks groups.
Both of these amendments were approved, which was very much in line with our requests.
So what next?
Friends of Gyle Park will now work with the Waste department to consider the bins sited in our park. We do not currently know whether these changes will allow us to have more bins or if bins will be moved from elsewhere in the park, but we will certainly keep our community up to date as we learn more.
We will be on the look out for the consultation occurring from Councillor Whyte's amendment to ensure that our voice continues to be heard on all items which matter to our community within the Neighbourhood Environment Services Policy, not just bin siting.
We'll also be following up to learn more about the council's position on bin sensors, engagement with Edinburgh Leisure and a public education programme.
In the meantime, we encourage all of our community to help us continue to keep our park tidy by joining us at our monthly litterpicks!
