Tourists create a lot of refuse. To cope with the immense amount of waste the many visitors to the city of Bruges generate the city authorities have now been forced to up bin capacity and introduce a special new system for litter bins on one Bruges’ busiest streets. From the street, bins on the Steenstraat, which runs from the ‘t Zand square to the market square look like ordinary rubbish bins. But underground, if you look, you will find a container with a capacity of 1,000 litres. That is 10 times more than the capacity of traditional refuse bins.
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Bins of Bruges need subterranean capacity to deal with tourist waste
Colin Clapson
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The first new underground container with a new dustbin atop was inaugurated on Bruges' market square on Monday. A total of 23 new bins will be installed on the market square and the Steenstraat, a major shopping artery. As a result people will be able to leave much more waste in the bins.
‘Conventional bins have to be emptied 7-to-8 times a day. During busy periods, we have to add bins. The new bins increase capacity for 3,800 litres of waste to 23,000 litres,’ explains proud Bruges alderman Franky Demon.
Scaling up the capacity also makes life safer for passers-by and municipal workers. ‘Often rubbish trucks have to drive through crowds to empty the bins. The underground containers only need to be emptied 2 or 3 times a week!’
Unique in the Benelux
Underground containers of this type are already being used abroad, in Paris and other busy locations, but what makes the system in Bruges special is the way the containers are emptied. ‘The container is opened and the waste is sucked out of the bins with a kind of hose. It is done extremely quickly.’