Windsor Cuts Litter and Safety Risks with Enclosed Downtown Bins

Home » Case Studies » Enclosed bins are helping Windsor, Ontario tackle litter, safety risk and repeated clean-up operations

Client:

City of Windsor

Application:

Downtown public-space waste infrastructure

A fresh approach to reoccurring downtown waste management problems

As part of its Strengthen the Core initiative, the City of Windsor took a closer look at the conditions shaping its downtown environment and identified waste infrastructure as one of the underlying operational problems.

The issue was not simply that existing bins were old or damaged. In many cases, they were open, accessible, or no longer working as intended in a high-pressure public setting. Waste could be removed easily, scattered around the surrounding area, and then picked up again by city crews. What should have been a straightforward collection task had become a repeated cycle of re-cleaning the same spaces.

The city was also dealing with broader concerns around fires in bins, public exposure to hazardous waste, and the overall perception of safety and cleanliness in the downtown core. Windsor needed a system that could hold up better under real public-use conditions.

Litter, safety, and workload challenges resolved

Like many downtown environments, Windsor was dealing with pressures that standard public bins do not manage well. When waste remains accessible after deposit, it can be pulled out, spread across sidewalks and streets, and turn one full bin into a much wider clean-up issue.

That affects more than appearance. It also adds labour, increases exposure to hazardous materials, and creates avoidable risk for both the public and frontline crews. In Windsor’s case, concerns about fires and unsafe contact with waste made it clear that the problem was not only operational. It was also a health and safety issue.

Rather than simply replacing older bins with newer versions of the same format, the city shifted its focus toward controlling access to waste once it had been deposited.

Secure enclosures are now keeping streets cleaner

Windsor introduced metroSTOR enclosed units across key areas of the downtown core, changing how the system worked at a basic level.

The units allow waste to be deposited easily while preventing access once material is inside. That enclosed format is designed to reduce the trigger for many of the downstream issues the city had been dealing with, including litter spread, interference with waste, and repeated clean-up work.

The units were also selected for durability and safety, while still fitting into the city’s existing collection operations. That meant the change was not about adding a more complicated system. It was about creating one that worked more reliably in a demanding public environment.

The initial rollout focused on high-footfall streets and key downtown corridors, where pressure on the public realm was greatest. The deployment also sat within a broader coordinated effort involving public works, enforcement, and other city services, reflecting the fact that downtown cleanliness depends on how the wider system performs, not just on the bins themselves.

Delivering visible results from day one

According to the city, the impact was visible almost immediately.

“What was attractive to us about these bins is that they’re fully enclosed. There’s far less chance for litter to be blown out or pulled out by hand, which has been a major issue for us.

There’s also a health and safety component – we don’t want people reaching into bins where there could be sharps or hazards. These units help eliminate that risk.

We saw a noticeable difference very quickly. From both an operational and public perspective, they’ve been a strong improvement for our downtown.”

Jim Leether
Senior Manager of Environmental Services, City of Windsor

With waste no longer being removed and spread as easily, streets stayed cleaner for longer and crews spent less time returning to re-clean the same areas. The enclosed format also supported safety goals by reducing public access to waste and lowering exposure to potentially hazardous materials.

Project notes also indicate that the city saw a reduction in fire incidents and an improvement in the overall sense of order downtown. For Windsor, the result was not just cleaner streets, but a more controlled and predictable public-space waste system.

What this shows for downtown public-space waste infrastructure

Windsor’s experience shows how quickly public-space conditions can improve when waste infrastructure is designed to control access after deposit. In high-pressure downtown environments, open systems often create ongoing labour, safety, and cleanliness problems that are expensive to manage reactively.

For other cities, that matters because the real cost of older or open bins is not only the unit price. It is the repeated clean-up, added workload, public risk, and visible disorder that follow when the system does not hold up in practice. Windsor’s move to enclosed infrastructure shows what can change when that underlying problem is addressed.

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