Man About Town

Published in Beartown Voice - January 2025

By Mark Edwardson

Last month we featured Nala the sophisti-cat who’s won the hearts of the people of Congleton. Now, it seems, our little town has upcycled “the things that everyday folk leave behind” into a global phenomenon.

Meet Andy Bailey. By day he’s a mild mannered digital creator. But his growing world wide reputation has come from litter-aly nothing. Andy is the famous “Bins of Congleton” social media star.

“My obsession started this time last year,” Andy told me. “I was in Congleton Park with the kids and they noticed no two bins are the same. We decided to take photographs and post them on the internet.”

Andy admits there wasn’t much interest at first but it turned out his idea was far from rubbish. “Here we are now with 129 bins,” Andy proudly announced, going on to say, “I’ve rated them all in a Top Trumps style on personality, placement, popularity, performance and pristineness.”

So where are the best bins? Andy was quick to nominate his favourites. “The best are the concrete bins at West Heath. They look very 1960s Soviet Bloc. They could survive a nuclear blast. But they’ve got a lovely copper trim around them. They ooze personality, they’re always clean and they perform well.”

Andy’s choice as most repugnant rubbish receptacle has been removed. “There was one by the playing fields in Buglawton. It looked like it had been in a fight and lost. It was at the bottom of a broken and bent pole looking like it had been kicked.”

There’s a serious side to Andy’s obsession. He’s a bin-fluencer. “The Tidy Britain Group have seen my work and they like the alternative approach. So, instead of shaming people into using bins it shows them in a more positive light.”

And what’s more positive than giving Congleton’s bins a name? (Trigger warning - here comes a pun tsunami.) “There’s Bin-adict Cumberbatch, Bin Jovi and Bin Kingsley,” he chuckled. “There’s Luke Litter-ler and at the tennis club you’ll find Tim Binman and Steffi Trash.” And the elephant in the room? “There’s no Bin Laden,” Andy assured me. “It has been suggested. If we find a bin hidden away, cowering a bit, you never know!”

Andy readily admits that what started as a tongue in cheek hobby has become his obsession. “My wife, Isobel, is just about getting on board. We’ve been walking along, I’ve seen a bin and I’ve stopped to photograph it while she’s still chatting away to herself miles ahead of me. My eldest son is at University and he loves it because he thinks it gives him kudos!”

Andy’s limited run of 2025 calendars featuring 12 Congleton bins of the month have long sold out. Copies have gone as far afield as Dubai, Australia and New Zealand.

So, what’s next? Andy’s bin ambition could see him take his trash talk on the road with presentations and a tour of Congleton’s garbage gobblers. Quirky? Yes. A load of old rubbish? I doubt it! All information accurate as of January 2025