A Day of Bin Hunting

Having had a limited amount of success finding animal bins in Glasgow I turned my attention to Cumbernauld, knowing that there are a lot of primary schools there where I may find an animal bin or two. My mother was kind enough to give me a lift around town. We waited till the schools were out before going and started with the schools my Mum knows since she is the school chaplain. They were nice enough there to give me a mildly absurd letter of introduction should any later schools doubt our identities or intentions.


A few of the 15 schools we visited didnt have animal bins, but on the whole it was a very successful. I counted 34 bins in total. Staff at the schools were all very friendly and helpful. There was however still a strange sense of stepping over a line. With the children having gone home these should have just seemed like every other building, but I still felt wary and in need of permission on every site. There was even one school where the cleaning ladies didnt want to give their permission so they fetched a teacher. She apologised that she wasnt sure if it was a good idea. It was her first year in the job and she was worried about any implications it might have if she allowed us to. I dont blame her at all but I couldnt help think its a good example of the overbearing security that is in place in schools these days.

As for the hippo bins, the photos should be available on my flickr site which Ive added a link to from this page. However Ive yet to get over a few problems with uploading images before they will be on.