Windy weather – bin clips and other advice
Windy weather – bin clips and other advice
For safety reasons and to help us keep to tight collection schedules we ask that householders don't use heavy weights, ropes or bungees to keep bins lids or bins secured. Our crews won't be able to collect bins secured in this way.
You can use a weight up to 2kg, or a piece of electrical tape to keep bin lids closed.
The Council has also identified two suitable bin straps which residents can use if they need a solution for keeping the lid on their bins on windy days. They are quick and safe to unhook and have been tested by the collection crews on the bin lorries to make sure they don’t get tangled in the lifting mechanisms. They are:
- Schafer clips - these can be purchased from School Place, Kirkwall and Warehouse Building in Stromness, for £5.50
- Caithness Beach Clean bin closers - made from recycled material can be found on the online Etsy shop, StormWashed
Only one clip per bin is needed. Clips cannot be delivered by the Council. Watch our video below or read our FAQs
I really have to get my bin out – it’s needing emptied and I don’t have the option of going to an HWRC. What should I do on a windy day?
First of all see if you can try to put it out alongside a shelter (for example, a fence or wall) or in a cluster with your neighbour’s bins - there is less of a risk of your bin being blown over then.
Facing the handles into the wind can also help, even if this means that they are pointing away from the road. If you’re worried that the bin lid will blow open, then we have seen some people using a small piece of electrical tape to keep the lid down. This works for us - the tape will come unstuck as the bin is tipped into the lorry.
Or you can purchase one of two clips approved for use – see www.orkney.gov.uk/binclips )
If you live in a particularly exposed area and feel that you really do need to place a weight on your bin, we would ask that you think about the size and weight carefully. Some of our crew will be moving between 200 - 300 bins on average in a round. As a guide, use a stone or weight no bigger than a traditional house brick (not a breeze block!) and no heavier than about 2kg, or 4lb. We have a duty of care to our staff and we have also seen examples of heavy weights damaging bins.
If you have the space you might like to build a shelter around your bins to use for presentation on your collection day. The shelter must be within 2m of the road, on land that you own, and provide unrestricted access for collection crews (handles out please). On collection day the bins must not be tethered to the shelter in any way. This is because the additional time taken to deal with hooks and ropes may mean that we can’t complete the full round in a day, and some customers will not get their bins emptied. We have also had injuries caused to staff where bungees have flicked up into faces – one eye injury would be too much, so thank you in advance for not using them.
