Bin Storage Housings Evolve to Meet the Needs of Residents

Seven years on, the tragic fire that ripped through Grenfell Tower is continuing to influence building safety regulations across the country. One particular feature of residential tower blocks being phased out of use is internal waste chutes. Designed to allow residents to easily dispose of their household waste from inside the building, waste chutes pose a number of problems ranging from unpleasant odour to fire risks. March 2021 saw the installation of external bin enclosures at Brentford Towers in Hounslow, transforming the lives of residents across six 22-storey buildings. We caught up with John Hyland, the council’s Project Property Manager, to see how things have evolved in the London borough.

“Over the years, as we’ve refurbished our blocks we took the decision to close down the waste chute rooms. Next came finding a solution to store all our rubbish in a central, safe location away from the buildings. That solution came through metroSTOR and we’re now in our third year of delivery.”

Over that time, John says that as the project has evolved, subtle changes have been made to units throughout Hounslow in order to make them clearer and easier to use for residents. This included clear communications on do’s and don’ts from the ReLondon Flats Recycling Project 2.0.

“We’ve changed our recycling bins to green and the general waste ones to black, emphasising the black bin sacks. The apertures on the units reflect what goes in them – slim and flat for cardboard, round for bottles and tins. People can then only get the right materials into those units. We had problems with food waste going into the general rubbish but thanks to clearer signage and dedicated bins that’s much better. London’s huge diversity came into account here – in Hounslow we have something like 270 different languages spoken. We took some inspiration from fire extinguisher pictogram designs and it works – different people have different ways of understanding things.”

During the project, effective communication among the various stakeholders has been key. In the beginning, it ensured a smooth launch but in the years since it has been a vital part of the project’s evolution. A veteran of social housing, John knows that the success of a project rests on clear communication.

“I’ve been in social housing now for 32 odd years. I know how key it is to have residents on board and when I came onto this project, that line of communication was a bit weak. We wanted them on board with us at the start of the journey. I was closely involved with Coryn and Roy at metroSTOR from the consultation stage – between us we created a line of communication that included all the major stakeholders across caretaking and refuse as well as the leaseholders and residents themselves. We were able to show everyone involved what it would look like and where it would go. It’s much easier for us to put forward a proposal to everyone and then be able to explain various regulations like bin towing distances and fire regulations all at once. Otherwise, you’re then having to tackle them one at a time as the project progresses. For me, it was a smooth process and the end users were happy with what they got.”

Keeping this established communication open past launch meant that John and LB Hounslow could continue to monitor the needs of residents and make any changes along the way. An example of this is the recent addition of base trims to the bin storage housings.

“The great thing about dealing with metroSTOR is that once a project is delivered, they actually come back. Before you know it, an impromptu visit turns into a full on post-inspection and every year has seen the specification change slightly. Recently, we’ve added skirts to the bases of the bins. Not only do they stop rubbish being blown out from under the bins, they also prevent vermin. The doors also now have a rubber skirt, whereas rigid ones tended to catch on uneven ground. We’re just continuing to adapt whenever we find something that could be improved – we want everything to last as long as it can. We’ve engineered it to a point that it’s not only maintainable, but easy to maintain.”

While the project is at a point where it’s working really well, John says that the metroSTOR solution means that they’ll always be ready for those incremental changes and improvements. 

“There’s still space for change as the whole system is modular. If new regulations come in on a specific part – fire ratings or locks for example – we don’t have to replace the whole thing. Residents can be quite vocal when things don’t go right and storing refuse safely away from their home makes the blocks safer and more hygienic. I believe we’ve ironed out all the issues we’ve come across so far. It’s hard to explain but it’s so satisfying being at the forefront of people’s health and safety. Thanks to things like the metroSTOR workshops, we can share findings with other councils and improve projects like this all across the country. We’ve all got different experiences but the one thing we all know is that this has to be done.”