Concrete bins are the perfect addition to public parks all over South Africa. Parks and squares offer a place for you to breathe after a hard week of working in a crowded city. We often want to spend some time in nature and have picnics in neat outdoor surroundings, and concrete bins play a part in ensuring that parks are kept clean and accommodating.
Waste bins make it easier to keep parks clean and help to control the amount of litter in these spaces. Bins are useful in various settings and adding these landscaping elements to public parks ensure that visitors have somewhere to dispose of their litter. Take a look through this quick article on the use of concrete bins in public parks and the overall benefits of cultivating a litter-free landscape.
What are concrete bins?
Concrete bins, much like the name suggests, are bins cast in concrete. These bins are durable and can withstand most harsh weather conditions. StreetScape offers a variety of concrete bin designs that are both durable and study, making these the perfect landscaping elements for outdoor parks.
Concrete Bins: Maintenance in parks and why it’s important
The most important feature of a good park is cleanliness. No matter how big the area is, all parks need regular maintenance to keep the area looking clean for prospecting picnickers. Parks don’t appear neat and tidy naturally, there are many park employees that work very hard to make public parks look pleasant.
Maintenance workers and park employees are the people that take care of landscaping requirements, cleaning tasks and other miscellaneous maintenance duties. In some situations, people volunteer and clean up parks of their own volition.
The effective maintenance of a park is important for several reasons. One of the most imperative would be the safety of visitors. If a park is not properly taken care of, it makes the area less appealing to visitors. This can lead to community members making less use of the park which can cause further disparity and deterioration.
Maintenance such as checking the lighting surveillance as well as cleaning graffiti are crucial contributors to making sure the park is safe for visitors. Park guests don’t just feel safe when maintenance is implemented, but it also discourages vandalism to the local park. When the park isn’t maintained and the lights aren’t working, or graffiti is scrawled all over the place, the park has the potential to become a hotspot for inappropriate or even illegal activities.
Alongside regular maintenance, parks can benefit from installing concrete bins. This allows people the opportunity to take responsibility for their own litter. This, in turn, will contribute to the maintenance of the outdoor space.
Parks often act as a designated location where people meet up with friends, walk their dogs and generally stroll through for some peace of mind. While at your local public park, you might want to sit on the grass, rest on the benches or go for short evening walks.
With so much activity in park areas, it is crucial to keep the space clean in order to prevent potential injuries. Broken glass and other sharp objects littered about can cause harm to park regulars. If not for concrete bins, people may leave their trash lying about and the other visitors might get hurt when stepping on this litter.
Top 5 benefits of community parks:
Here are some of the top benefits of clean public parks within communities. Anyone can benefit from some fresh air and sunshine, and what better way to experience this than at a public park?
Offering the community access to safe and clean public spaces
It’s often the little things that make one park exceptional in comparison to another. Things like regular maintenance, effective landscaping, and picking up litter are all noticeable signs that the local community cares about their parks. When a park is clean, it automatically becomes a safer space for community members to gather which means more people will be able to spend their time in nature.
Maintenance such as cutting grass, pruning bushes, and manicuring trees are often an excellent start, but park owners should also consider the types of plants used in their park settings.
Parks are often located at the centre of all neighbourhoods, therefore, growing the right plants in your park is important for the welfare of community members. For example, using low pollen plants will accommodate all those individuals struggling with allergies during spring time.
Encouraging a healthy lifestyle
Nowadays, people often don’t have time to exercise. Children are busy with school work and adults spend long hours at their desk jobs. The opportunity to be active has become rather limited.
Furthermore, not everyone has access to a gym to do their workouts. Some parks have fitness equipment which encourages people to spend some time outside and get some exercise as well. One of the benefits of parks is that anyone is welcome, regardless of one’s economic status.
Parks can only benefit from supplying visitors with some athletic fields, leg lift loops, and pull-up bars. This creates simple, but affordable improvements to the park that provide visitors with hours of free and safe exercise.
Encouraging environmental awareness
Parks don’t just motivate you and your community to be healthy, these areas also shape awareness regarding the environment. For many urban community members, the park is the only place where they can truly appreciate nature.
It could be beneficial and educational for park owners to label some of the plants and trees growing around the area. This creates more appreciation and awareness of the natural landscape for the benefit of local members, from both the younger and older generations.
Your community park can be a central pillar of your effort to shape green awareness in the neighbourhood. It’s always good to have recycling stations, and ample trash cans throughout the park to separate all the different waste materials. It also brings awareness to the crucial issues surrounding waste pollution.
Another great way to spread awareness of these issues is by sponsoring annual cleanup events for members of the community to take part in. This is a way for community members to come together and spruce up their small part of the natural world.
Access to playground equipment
You and your community can come together as one and provide the children of the community with some playground equipment. This can be a way for children to enjoy the park with their parents while socialising with other children as well.
Adding playground equipment for handicapped children can foster inclusivity. Children with challenges will be able to play at the park just like everyone else.
Parks are spaces for entertainment
Parks can be the perfect location for public and private events. This can range from family events to public city gatherings. These places are spacious and therefore have the opportunity to host various types of entertainment. Both parents and adults need a place where they can gather with their friends and families for sports, relaxation or even picnic dates.
Some additional amenities that parks can include to provide their visitors with entertainment are things like eating areas that are either covered or open. Braai pits can be beneficial for sports gatherings or even family lunches.
Benches are beneficial for community members to have a seat and enjoy the nature around them, especially the elderly. Lastly, stages and theatrical venues can create some opportunities for the park to get sponsors as well as exposure.
Parks in Cape Town can make use of concrete bins:
Cape Town is known as a place with many different beautiful landscapes. The city has a variety of beaches, gardens, mountains, nature reserves and unique floral biomes. It’s important that the residents or visitors protect these landscapes and maintain their beauty. Besides regular maintenance, these areas can house concrete bins to keep the landscapes from being tarnished by litter.
The parks and nature reserves in Cape Town are home to some of the most beautiful plants and trees as well as different families of animals. Therefore, it’s our job to discourage littering and emphasise the importance of bins to keep these areas clean.
Litter is harmful to natural environments, people, and animals. The major impact of litter is that it can be a danger to public health, increase the risk of fires, endangering or even killing wildlife, and can cause some serious damage to waterways.
Another impact of litter is the fact that it, directly and indirectly, impacts the tourism industry as well as our quality of life. A result of our irresponsible pollution has an impact on how people from different countries view our city. We should be protecting our environmental resources by creating developmental programs to shape awareness around litter and the consequences thereof.
When parks don’t have enough trash bins, it also impacts the park owner. In some cases, people volunteer to regularly pick up the trash in their local parks. But if the park doesn’t have these volunteers, additional maintenance workers will be needed to provide these services.
How to prevent littering:
There are many environmental organisations that go out of their way to provide the community with some resources to improve the state of their environment regarding litter. These organisations can provide you and your community with litter clean-ups, education and awareness campaigns, better bins, and the ability to keep those who litter accountable for their actions.
Most people understand the dangers of littering and how it is impacting their communities. We all want to enjoy nature in all its beauty, but this can only be done by cultivating a clean environment. Here are some basic rules you can follow to eliminate littering in your life and eventually influence your community to do the same.
If you are in a park and there are no trash bins available, take your rubbish away with you.
- Always put your litter in a bin.
- It’s a good idea to keep a plastic bag in your car to collect any rubbish.
- Buy less packaging and make use of reusable containers.
- Put your cigarette butt in the butt bin or any other bin once it’s been extinguished.
- Keep a container in your car to collect the butts. This can help to prevent fires from starting.
Where to buy the perfect concrete bins for your park:
If you are a park owner that wants to incorporate some weather-withstanding, affordable bins into your park, StreetScape is here to help. StreetScape has many different bin options that can all meet your litter prevention needs.