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

List of available Windy Weather Questions

You've cancelled a collection due to bad weather - will you be coming back to recollect?

We cannot guarantee we will be able to catch up on collections cancelled in severe weather, as we’ll be dealing with the knock on effect of the weather (eg increased gritting operations, or clearing roads from debris) as well as collection delays and disruptions on other routes.

We do try however to re-collect in some circumstances, for example especially for waste collections, or when an Area has had the previous recycling collection for that material cancelled.

Typically, repeat attempt collections (if/where they are possible) are organised at short notice to fit into an already tight collection schedule – the best place to check for updates is www.orkney.gov.uk/news and www.facebook.com/oicupdates

Where a repeat collection is not possible, householders can hold onto their waste/recycling until their next scheduled collection, or visit a HWRC.

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