UPDATE: The city’s Lena Stevens provides us with a bit more info on the new bins, their inspiration and when should should expect to see more around town…

We will be getting 8 more bins for the downtown area, and 10 for the Beacon Municipal Center. We expect delivery of the rest of the bins sometime next week. This is a small pilot to see if we can get more folks to properly recycle by making the bins easily accessible and clearly marked. We got the idea from Asheville. They just switched out all of their cans to this style.

We will be testing them for durability too. The good thing about the old style bins is that you can hit them with a truck and there won’t be a scratch on it. If these new bins work out for us, we would likely phase them in over time, not in one big order.

You may have noticed these new trash bins on Decatur Square during the Decatur Book Festival.

Over the years, some residents have expressed a desire for new bins that more clearly identify trash vs. recycling. (Looking at you, altmod).  Previously, both were large, black metal bins.  It looks like the city has responded with a new black can for garbage and a teal one for recycling. They’ve also taken it a step further, now identifying the garbage can as a “landfill” can.

So, what does everything think?

Photo courtesy of Gwyneth