Day 2: Out and about

Seeing the sites (but no recycling bins...)

Today we’ve been out and about in Edinburgh, a truely magnificent city. We’ve visited the Meadows, given Greyfriars Bobby a pat, walked through the University of Edinburgh, seen the Elephant House (the ‘birthplace’ of the Harry Potter books) and visited the Museum.

But something we didn’t see, and haven’t see anywhere in the UK is a recycling bin in a public space. There are plenty of  litter bins (like the one to the left), but no recycling bins - something we’re use to seeing in the City of Melbourne. There are some recycling bins in Shopping Centres, and ‘private’ spaces such airports and major tourist attractions but none on the streets. The recycling station below was one of several inside Edinburgh Castle.

At a guess there is no public (‘council’) contract to pick up recycling along with the waste? A lost opportunity in terms of making recycling an easy option when people are out and about drinking water from plastic bottles, or drinking cans of Irn-Bru.