Just like most people I like looking out my kitchen window and having pride in the street that I see. I put lots of effort into keeping my garden well-kept, the lawns mown, and of course, keeping my rubbish in the bin and out of my front yard.
However, no matter how hard I tried I found myself seeing a familiar sight most rubbish collection days. My bin blown over, and my bottles, newspapers and other rubbish strewn across my verge. One particular example clearly sticks in my mind.
Let’s rewind back to winter 2012. As usual, I put my bins out on the Monday night (our collection days are Tuesday), as I’m a bit forgetful in the mornings. Being a tradie that runs my own bathroom renovation business I’m usually out the door super early and that Tuesday was no exception. It was a freezing, wet and windy day and I awoke with a sense of dread.
Sure enough, my fears were confirmed when I walked out the door to the horrible sight of rubbish spewing over our verge, garden and all the way down the street. The wind had blown our recycling and rubbish bin lids over and there was filth everywhere. Disgusting.
It took an age to pick it all up making me quite late for my first quote. Not happy.
This was the last straw, I had to find a way to keep my bin lids closed. I’d seen bricks on bins and occy straps used to tie down the lids, but these were clearly not the answer. Not only were they dangerous but counterproductive as well, as our rubbish wouldn’t be collected.
One day I popped down to Bunnings to see what contraptions I could find to help me in my quest, however I was astonished to find nothing!
Coming home empty handed and slightly disheartened I was inspired by my dad who always said to me; “If something doesn’t work properly, think about how you can make it work better” I decided to set about making my own wheelie bin lid lock. Much to my delight it worked a treat!! The very next collection day I arose to a beautiful clean front yard, despite one of my bins blowing over, and so I patented the design – BinSpring.
BinSpring is now available everywhere.
As a society, we focus so much on sorting our rubbish into the correct bins. Be it recycling, general waste or garden waste. However, there has been little consideration given to whether our wheelie bins that are designed to ‘contain’ our rubbish, do the job. Our domestic wheelie bin lids are designed to open stay open to allow waste to be removed or manually closed shut by the user. However, the do not prevent wildlife fossicking through our bins for food scraps and wind getting under the lid, causing rubbish to escape, prior to collection. These outcomes are devastating for our wildlife and environment and so easily preventable with a bin lid closer.
Taking care of my own rubbish makes me proud, and with BinSpring I know that I can keep my yard, street and city in the condition that I strive to see it in.
Now it’s your turn. How do you ensure your rubbish is not contributing to our environmental pollution?