Junk status: Trim bin hopes to attract a load of rubbish

Trim's artistic new approach to tackling litter in the tourist town has more to do with landscape art than landfill. The brainchild of Cllr Gerry Reilly, who spotted a similar model on the tourist-laden promenade in Galway last summer, the new bin - located at Trim Castle - is wrapped with garden shots that are easier on the eye than a regular red bosca bruscar. "We just want to keep the town tidy, that's the main thing," Cllr Reilly said of some picturesque lateral thinking. "In the beginning, we were thinking that we would just have to hide it, because the area is a tourist hot-spot, but it works well - much better than hiding it - with the wrap around on it." Cllr Reilly saw a more industrial-looking garbage-gobbler in Galway but without the wrap-around it looked like what it was - four wheelie bins converted into one larger bin. To take pressure off the bins at the castle, Cllr Reilly enlisted the service of Jack Kennedy of Impact Designs who took images from Cllr Reilly's own garden and blew them up large enough to be wrapped around the bins, similar to the way logos and designs are fitted to vans and trucks. The initiative was a "joint effort", he says, involving Trim Town Council and Trim Tidy Towns committee and the novel bin has been donated to the town by Cllr Reilly, and will be emptied free of charge by local business, Mahon's Recycling, which has waived its fee to help the project. Trim Tidy Towns' Brian Heffernan said it is a "community effort" to keep a "sensitive area in a tourist town litter-free". What's more, he added, recent visits by Pride of Place judges went well and they were "very impressed" with the efforts of those involved, as were Tullamore Town Council who sent representatives, including its litter warden, to view the bin. "It's been in operation about a month," said Mr Heffernan. "It's Gerry's brainchild and it takes the pressure off the bins around the cannon and the front of the castle, which is a picnic area." Trim's Tidy Towns committee has been busy recently and a mural - depicting a photo of 1920s Trim - has been painted at Watergate Street by local artist Megan Quinn. "It's a very good advertisement for the town and, with the mural, we are hoping to do well in Tidy Towns this year with silver or gold hopes. There's been a great effort but I would also like to wish Moynalty, Kiltale and Batterstown all the best as they'll bring more people into the county with their improvements and efforts, too," he said. Cllr Reilly isn't planning on going into mass production just yet but says that "if it even gets the town a few extra points in Tidy Towns, then that's the most important thing for the town and attracting people to it".