How Many Bins Are There In The City Of London?

Will Noble
By Will Noble Last edited 92 months ago
How Many Bins Are There In The City Of London?

Picture the scene. You've just finished a lovely Snickers and are now on the hunt for a repository in which to responsibly discard of the wrapper.

Except you're in the City of London, and there doesn't seem to be a ruddy bin in sight.

Is it just us, or does the City of London have a distinct lack of rubbish bins?

We wrote to the City to ask them exactly how many public bins there are.

The answer? 46.

That's right, there are just 46 public litter bins in the entire Square Mile.

Ah, you say. But what about RECYCLING bins? Surely there must be ample spots for banishing your Evening Standard?

A rare sight. Cherish it

In fact, the City of London has just 13 public recycling bins.

So is it a security thing? In part, yes. As the City of London told us: "Public bins were removed from the City of London following the 1993 bombing". This is referring to when the IRA blew up a truck on Bishopsgate, killing one and injuring 44. No bin was actually involved in the bombing.

But since reintroducing some bins, the City has come to realise these can be more trouble than they're worth anyway, a 2010 report concluding:

...in general, in the City litter bins can encourage illegal dumping, look unsightly, encourage vermin, impact on recycling tonnages and that placing litter bins City-wide would not improve the situation and could well have a negative impact upon the overall street scene environment.

So if you come across a City of London bin, cherish it — it's a very limited edition after all.

There is, though, a silver lining for the smokers among us. The number of cigarette bins in the City of London is... 975.

That says a lot about modern London's stress levels.

Last Updated 15 July 2016