The council have informed New Town residents that they intend to remove almost all of the New Town’s communal street bins and force residents to instead use multiple gull proof sacks.

This will mean you will be forced to store all of your household waste in your property until collection day.

Why you should say no to the gull proof sacks:

• Storing a week’s worth of waste in and around residents’ homes will lead to increased pests like maggots and flies as well as rats. Let us keep rodents away from our homes.
• It is unhygienic – storing waste, especially food waste for up to a week in the home is not sanitary. Would you visit a restaurant who stored their waste for a week?
• Think of the smell! Just imagine what your rubbish will smell like after being kept at your home for a week in the summer?
• Do you want the extra hassle of having to clean multiple gull proof sacks? We all know rubbish can leak and produce ghastly bin juice. Do you really want the extra chore of having to clean several dirty used gull proof sacks?
• They are ugly! A street bin is an unoffensive practical object. Just imagine how ugly the New Town will look when there all of the streets are lined with gull proof sacks hanging from our beautiful cast iron railings.
• They don’t work. I live on a street that adjoins a street which took part in the gull proof sack trial. Residents from the gull proof sack trial regularly come and use our communal street bin. This is clear evidence residents prefer the communal bins to gull proof sacks.
• Gull proof sacks might be gull proof but they are certainly not fox, rat or mouse proof. Foxes will spread rubbish over our roads and pavements, they can easily get inside a gull proof sack left on the street but not a latched metal bin.
• This measure is being forced upon New Town residents by a tiny vocal minority who do not represent the views of the majority.

The Petition is Now Closed

Thank you to everyone who signed our petition against the gull proof sacks.

We received hundreds of signatures and comments.

The petition will now be forwarded to council officer and the councillors who sit on the Transport & Environment Committee.

Fill in the consultation

The council are running an online consultation which closes before Friday 4th April 2025.

This can be accessed at: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/bin-review

We have one chance to stop their proposals, please complete both the petition and the consultation.

What others say about gull proof sacks:

Lived in a place that has those, and they needed replacing more often as they wear out after being dragged around. To attempt to make them gull proof you need tie them very tightly over the top which I can imagine is time consuming for the people collecting the bins

If it’s what East Lothian already have. The bags are absolutely terrible. It’s a big open flap, don’t hold up well or last very long. They blow around in the slightest bit of wind with it emptying out. Will cost more money to keep replacing ripped or lost bags, don’t understand why Edinburgh council are now also doing this. Who wants to keep a dirty bag in their house, giving you a higher chance of mice/rats.

I personally think the proposal is shameful, revolting and impractical. Keeping my trash in my home? Gross. What about families and new parents? I bet a weeks worth of diapers would be delightful. Summer? Strikes? My faith neighbours, students and short term lets will put out and collect in a timely way? Non-existent. The visuals of 8-10 bins per stair cluttering walkways? Talk about unsightly. Where would they be placed? My street has no railings so they’re just going to blow around and spill. The food bins are already a hazard tipping over and spreading peoples food waste all over the pavements. I can only imagine when there’s also garbage. Everything about it is ill conceived. Just plainly ridiculous.

Really cross about it. My kitchen is tiny. No storage apartment from a small cupboard in the kitchen. Where am I meant to store this rubbish for 2 weeks?There’s 8 flats in our building, that means 8 boxes/bags on the street every week. It’s a joke.

It’s a nightmare I hate them. Unless you have cellars or a massive flat you end up with all your rubbish in your home. Plus the collection times were already cut to once a week and the new bags are tiny. They only take 1 bin bag.

The sacks will inevitably be overfilled and then hung from cast iron railings, which will eventually buckle and break and will need to be replaced. There are no foundries left in Edinburgh to make replacement rails. Just stick with the street bins.

I got this letter and filled in the survey to say I wasn’t happy about it and that I would prefer on street bins for general and recyclable waste, as well as food waste. It is much easier to be able to throw things out as and when you need to than it is to remember to put bins out for collection.

I also don’t see that gull proof sacks are aesthetically better than on street bins.

Great if you have a place to hang one, space to store the rubbish in between collections, and a car to drive to a tip/other bin if you have too much to hoard/dump at once. Otherwise it’s daft.