August 2018 ♪♪♪
It was my second visit to Edinburgh and we enjoyed in very Scotland-esque weather of its early summer. My first visit to the city was more than twenty years ago. Then I was overwhelmed by the historical and traditional architectures; perhaps some of you, who have visited Edinburgh, felt the same way. In this visit, I was, in addition, overwhelmed by the variety of rubbish bins. I saw, by chance, some litter bins nearby The Forth Bridge (the above picture), which locates in the north west of Edinburgh and across the Firth of Forth, was completed at the end of the nineteenth century. The historical atmosphere can be felt.
Nearby the bridge, a bin of non-classifiable category was situated. In the houses surrounding the bridge, rubbishes seemed to be divided into three or four categories.
In the North Queensferry Station (the nearest station to The Forth Bridge) where I stopped, litters were separated into four categories; namely, general waste, drinks cans, plastic bottles and paper.
There is a bin of a non-classifiable type that you can find anywhere else that stood at a crossroad and a back alley of New Town. But it always has a convenient ashtray on the top of it. I found the same type of bins near St Giles' Cathedral of Old Town (the below picture). The red bins of the shop are collected by the local government. I was very interested in the category of “dry mixed recyclables” which is unusual in Japan.
In Edinburgh Castle, the slots of litter bins were divided into four or five kinds; general waste, drink cans, paper, plastic packaging and plastic cups. There is a special graveyard for cigarette butts (the below picture).
I have never seen such a huge litter bin at nearby Scott Monument which stood in Princes Street Gardens (the below pictures). That area was very crowded with a lot of tourists.
We stayed at a hotel in the West end of Edinburgh, and went to the Gyle Shopping Centre nearby. There, I found Morrissons’s logo of used clothes and shoes collecting machine in the parking space. The reuse and recycle collection was operated by The Salvation Army which was one of the first ever charities to run a second-hand clothing shop in the 19th century in the UK, and had some commercial partners. One of them is Morrisons corporate (Bradford, England) which is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in UK. Its main competitors are Tesco, Asda and Saintsbury’s. We can find the machines, it’s called “donation bank”, throughout the UK.
The picture on the left shows an interesting bin with a unique notice in Newhaven harbour of the north Edinburgh (I used the picture in the top of this home page). Sometimes, I come across some bins with notices; please see the previous Nottingham issue. I am very interested in the person who put out the notice because, I guess, he/she might love litter bins. There were the other designs of bins (the above pictures).
When I was not busy spotting bins, I was looking for the good cuisines. During our visit to Edinburgh, we dined at some good places; Vietnam House (EH3 8AF) and Locanda De Gusti (EH11 2DW). In the former, we enjoyed lovely thinly sliced raw beef soup noodle (pho), it was pretty good. Aromatic hot broth is poured into the bowl which then cooks the thinly sliced beef. Unfortunately, they do not serve alcohol. In the latter, we ordered the main course of hot seafood with white wine. We appreciated the good hospitality of both restaurants.
See you soon in the next issue!
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