Love St Pauls brings a colourful bin art trail to Bristol

Love St Pauls is an unusual street art project made from decorated bins with the aim of changing the way people think about waste.

As part of a campaign called ‘Love St Pauls’ we have been working with children and young people in the area to decorate new bins with their artwork. The Love St Paul’s bins were installed from 12 April 2022 and run the length of City Road and the surrounding areas.

Creating the bins

The bins were designed in craft workshops held at youth groups in St Pauls, with the help of local artist Deborah Weinreb and Sylvia Vincent from Imayla and supported by our Community Engagement Team. Each workshop encouraged young people to talk about waste, litter and fly-tipping and how to improve the streets of St Pauls.

Using crayons, pens and splashes of paint, children excitedly busied themselves by drawing pictures of fictional superheroes, catchy slogans and designing funky clothes for cut-out figures using different materials. The children explored themes around the environment, chatted about the litter in St Pauls and considered why we should respect our neighborhoods. The children’s designs have been adapted to fit on 15 bins.

Community collaboration

The creative collaboration between the residents of St Pauls and local youth groups was designed to involve young people in making the area an enjoyable place to live. We hope this project adds to the vibrancy of the area and changes the way people think about their waste. If ‘Love St Pauls’ is a success, we hope to replicate it in different areas of Bristol to help improve neighbourhoods across the city.

Changing Your Mindset, the Full Circle Project at Docklands Community Centre and St Pauls Adventure Playground provided the space for the workshops and helped encourage the children to express themselves through art.

We hope the bin art will help enhance the St Pauls district and inspire discussions about litter.