please empty your brain below
Clear plastic rubbish bags are not the solution for underground stations as a bomb can go off after being placed in one and still cause considerable damage, as I understand it research is going on into a bin that can contain a blast and would therefore be "safe" to use underground.

Nicks | 09.06.11 - 9:01 a.m. | #

They could do with a few more bins around the City as well. A couple of times now I have walked from Fenchurch Street station to Bank popping in to a Subway shop on the way and then ended up having to take the wrappers to my final destination as I couldn't find a bin on the street or at Bank.

Barry | 09.06.11 - 9:21 a.m. | #

@Nicks: I think the idea with the clear bags is that you can see if a bomb has been left in there and then clear the station before it goes off. The bomb proof bins are a good idea but I wonder how thick they will have to be to contain the blast.

Barry | 09.06.11 - 9:26 a.m. | #

Barry: If you wrap your bomb in a copy of the Metro, rather than leave it unwrapped with a sign saying "bomb" on it .... or alternatively put it in the heel of an old shoe, I believe that's been done before.

allotmentqueen | 09.06.11 - 9:35 a.m. | #

@allotmentqueen: Do you mean that the cartoons have been lying to me all these years and bombs aren't black balls with a fizzing fuse sticking out of the top. Next you'll be telling me if I hit some one in the face with a frying that their head won't end up a perfectly round circle. :)

It is true they could wrap it up in a paper but you might still have a chance of noticing that something looks a bit suspicious. Also if you put a bomb in a metal bin and it blows up you end up with lots of shrapnel but not so much from a plastic bag.


Barry | 09.06.11 - 10:25 a.m. | #

DG - "They'll be getting bored" Sorry, I could only manage half the post before I lost interest.

B | 09.06.11 - 10:53 a.m. | #

B: you're clearly the sort of person who also "loses interest" halfway through the Metro and puts it on the shelf behind you or, more annoyingly, on the floor for all and sundry to kick around.

Paul | 09.06.11 - 12:21 p.m. | #

Time and time again passengers have said they want more bins because other people leave litter around. And time and time again, they then leave their newspaper on the tube because the newspaper isn't rubbish now is it?

Ah, I think I've found the problem Boris...

Cos you see, most of the litter is newspapers. I can tell you outside the station I use at home and outside the one I use at work, there are huge bins for papers. And I don't think I've ever seen anyone use them. They leave the paper on the train. Cos it's not litter. Is it?

Andrew Bowden | 09.06.11 - 1:09 p.m. | #

Personally, I find the tube to be really tidy. I rarely see non-newspaper rubbish. And I don't consider newspapers rubbish, as I often leave work so late that I miss out on getting a Standard from one of the nice young men who pass them out, so I am always very very happy to find a discarded one on the train.

Elizabeth | 09.06.11 - 2:58 p.m. | #

Actually Paul, if I pick up a newspaper on the tube, I usually take it home - it's good for wrapping food waste in - or lining the food waste box.

B | 09.06.11 - 4:46 p.m. | #

Oh great - every passenger will have access to at least one bin on every journey. That's fine for people who are conscientious enough to look for one. The problem is the people who don't: and the answer to that is to give them no excuses - one of those plastic bags on a stand every five yards would be more like it (and at the top and bottom of every escalator and staircase).

Autolycus | Homepage | 09.06.11 - 6:52 p.m. | #

@Autolycus. I was going to say something similar and add that we are yet again looking at the problem the wrong way around. Surely it isn’t an excuse to litter just because there aren’t enough bins! The existing litter laws should be robustly enforced and those caught should face a heavy fine. I know that most would get away, but if it were done consistently, a lot of people would eventually think twice

Mark Garth | Homepage | 09.06.11 - 8:27 p.m. | #

"Time and time again passengers have said they want more bins because other people leave litter around. And time and time again, they then leave their newspaper on the tube because the newspaper isn't rubbish now is it?"

Exactly Andrew. Often the newspapers fall on the floor where someone could slip on them. I always take home any free newspapers I pick up, but most people don't.

Personally, it would be nice if the only free publication for commuters was the Metro. It's a bunch of recycled press releases, but at least it has news in it, unlike the free magazines shoved into my chest each morning. I wouldn't like to see a ban on any publication though, just my fantasy.

What would be nice is fines for commuters who leave their paper anywhere but on the little ledge behind the seat. That'd bring in some much needed revenue, although Boris might spend it on space hoppers for Chelsea or a giant catapult on Primrose Hill where people can actually be fired into their office.

Richard | Homepage | 09.06.11 - 8:51 p.m. | #

While it's a laudible idea, and much needed throughout central London (I've often felt ashamed of my hometown on seeing litter dumped in the kerb for street sweepers to clear up instead), surely once there is even a small amount of litter in the bags it will obscure anything within it anyway!
Unless someone is on standby ready to change the bag every time something is thrown away!

CornishCockney | 09.06.11 - 9:39 p.m. | #

Is there really such a risk from exploding bins these days anyway?

The main trigger for removing them was the IRA bomb at Victoria station, thankfully Irish terrorism is very rare now.

The terrible events of 7/7 weren't caused by someone leaving a bomb behind in a bin, and any future Tube attack by al-Qa'ida will presumably be by a suicide bomber again :-(

Mikey C | 09.06.11 - 9:59 p.m. | #

There used to be, and I think there still is, a now very tatty poster on the wall of the subway leading from the main line entrance to the Victoria line ticket hall at Vauxhall, which has been bearing the headline "Why doesn't the Underground have litter bins?" for years. It then goes on to explain that they were all removed in the 1970s. Not a word about why they weren't all put back again afterwards, of course.

Don't blame the terrorists, blame the political point-scoring stable door-shutting legislators who make our lives much more miserable in the name of national security than any terrorists ever dreamed of. It shameful that we've gone decades with a terrible litter problem and allowed a culture of leaving things on the ledge behind the seats (and even chucking them onto the tracks) to grow up, because of one terrorist attack by a no longer operational group.

swirlythingy | Homepage | 09.06.11 - 10:54 p.m. | #

Back in 2001, on my first visit to London with my then-girlfriend, we got off the tube at Oxford Circus. The ex spotted a bin and used it to dispose of the remnants of the apple she had been eating.

Next thing we know, we're being screamed at by the woman who had been standing next to the bin. Little did we Australians realise that there were no bins on the tube like there were back home. We tried to point that out to the woman, but she wasn't having it.

And then, the following exchange happened:

Her: "I just bought that bin! It cost me 80 quid!"
Me: "So, are you going to scream at every person that puts rubbish in your 80 quid bin when you get it home, then?"
Her: "..."

Jez | Homepage | 10.06.11 - 5:47 a.m. | #











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