New bins have appeared across Manchester today – and they act as a ballot box for some hot topics.
Mancs will be able to vote with their litter on subjects like who the best Gallagher brother is, what you call those round breads, and which film is better out of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
It’s similar to the cigarette butt bins that popped up in Ancoats earlier this year, but on a much larger scale.
When you place any rubbish in your chosen half of the bin, it adds another vote to the counter.
For example, when we chucked a bottle away earlier, we helped ‘Barm’ edge into the lead on the never-ending ‘Barm vs Muffin’ debate.
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It’s hoped that the scheme will encourage people to reduce their litter while also weighing in on popular debates.
Manchester City Council have worked with environmental charity Hubbub and in collaboration with KFC on the Big Ballot Bins, as part of the #PickYourSideMCR campaign.
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The bins are the first of their kind and have been placed on commuter routes to and from Piccadilly station.
They use sensors to detect and count which option the public vote for as they throw away their rubbish, with digital screens keeping track of the score.
New ‘ballot bins’ have appeared in Manchester city centreNew ‘ballot bins’ have appeared in Manchester city centre
It comes as new figures show that the UK is spending £1 billion each year to clear 30 million tonnes of litter.
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Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods, said: “I am pleased that we’re teaming up with Hubbub to launch this new scheme in the city centre. This initiative is one of the many innovative ways that the Council are trying to reduce littering in the city and encourage people to put their rubbish in the bin.
“By getting people voting we hope that residents will be encouraged to vote on funny topics, and throw their rubbish in the bins, keeping our streets clean. “
Gavin Ellis, Director and Co-Founder at Hubbub, commented: “Since we created the Ballot Bin voting ashtray back in 2016 and saw it successfully nudging smokers to bin their butts, Hubbub has wanted to test the same approach with litter bins.
“We’re always looking for creative ways to reduce littering and we hope the new Big Ballot Bins, which are built based on proven behaviour change principles, will do just that. We’ll be tracking the impact they have through independent, scientific measurement.”
Jenny Packwood, Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer and Interim CMO, KFC UK & Ireland, said: “Litter is an eyesore and is bad for the environment. We all hate to see it, and we take our responsibility to reduce the impact of litter in our communities very seriously.
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“That’s why this pilot scheme using behavioural insights to test new approaches to tackling litter is an exciting next step for us. We want to play our part to find real solutions that work for the people of Manchester.”
The impact of the project will be measured by environmental tech company Ellipsis Earth who will use artificial intelligence to identify and scientifically measure changes to litter levels around the bins. This data, combined with results from a parallel project being run in Southampton, will help determine the impact of the bins and whether using voting bins could help other city centres tackle litter too.
Featured image: The Manc Group
Manchester
Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Daisy Jackson -
19th July 2023 
