An answer to the bin problem on narrow Harringay streets?

There are a few streets in Harringay where the front gardens are rather tiny, are filled with steps or non-existent. One wheelie bin and a recycling box might just fit but when these properties have been converted into flats, bins and rubbish spills out onto the pavement making it a nightmare to get past them and making the street look awful.

So it is with some interest that I read about a move back to communal bins in some areas. This case study, with a before and after picture, is of Clapton Terrace in Hackney where 17 houses are home to 80 households and where 64 wheelie bins cluttered the pavement, with rubbish often overflowing. As well as cleaning up the street, the residents reported higher levels of socialising as they made the trip to the bin and bumped into neighbours. I'm aware that communal bins have been used before, notably in Seymour Road but these were for Green Lanes waste from shops.

If suitable sites could be identified, residents fully included in the planning of it and bins regularly monitored for abuse and dumping (perhaps by making them only accessible to residents with a key), could the Big Bin be the answer to the wheelie bin obstacle course on some of our streets?

Read the whole case study here