Oldham wheelie bin 'swims' 55km to Trafford during storm

Pete Miners, who runs the environmental campaign Counting Outdoor Manchester Bottles (COMB), found the abandoned bin on the Urmson riverbank on Friday (October 27).

Mr Miners recovered thousands of discarded glass and plastic bottles over the years when out on dog walks in Sale with his 'environmental watchdog', Alfie, who died in April last year.

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But compared to the usual culprits of plastic bottles, bottle caps, alcohol bottles, aerosols and even rubber ducks from races, the bin made for a rather unusual discovery.

Pete Miners runs COMB to document the environmental impact of single-use bottles (Image: Counting Outdoor Manchester Bottles)

Photographs of the now-battered blue bin show it is labelled as at a property in Dobcross which falls under Oldham Council's authority.

Mr Miners believes its journey must have started at Diggle Brook where it somehow ended up in the water and joined the River Tame in Uppermill.

Mapping out its suspected journey, he then said the bin must've headed south through Mossley and continued to "bob" past Stalybridge, Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Hyde, Woodley and Brinnington.

A rough estimate of the route shows the bin covered an estimated 55km (Image: Google Maps)

Then winding through the River Tame and through Reddish Vale, it joined the River Mersey at Stockport and merged with the River Goyt, passing by Heaton Norris, Edgely, Parrswood, West Didsbury, Chorlton and Stretford before finally landing at Urmston.

Mr Miners found the washed up and bruised bin at the Urmston 'mud bowl', an estimated 55km downstream through five Greater Manchester districts.

While it's assumed Storm Babet has something to do with it, it remains a mystery if the bin managed the whole journey in one or if it had been bobbing along in separate instalments for a while.

Pete said it's the second wheelie bin he's encountered since Storm Babet (Image: Counting Outdoor Manchester Bottles)

Residents have also been quick to comment on the bin's 'big escape' on social media as one man joked: "The torment you'll get through to get away from Oldham."

Another added: "We're not satisfied with fly-tipping on our own patch, we're going national."

A woman also said if she were the owner of the bin, she wouldn't know whether "to quietly die or embarrassment or embrace the fact my bin is a celebrity".

Rubber ducks are also frequent offenders which end up in Greater Manchester's waterways (Image: Counting Outdoor Manchester Bottles)

Others said the journey was "incredible" but goes to show how dangerous flooded rivers can be while some were sceptical about the bin having travelling so far.

Still, many found the funny side as one woman added: "I probably shouldn't laugh at this, but there's something I find so comical about wheelie bin adventures.

"It's like a kid's storybook."

A bin from Tameside has also been found by the riverbank (Image: Counting Outdoor Manchester Bottles)

The discovery comes as Mr Miners said he also found a bin from Tameside just days before and said it also "came a long way".

He continued: "As of earlier this year, there had been a square industrial-sized wheelie bin also on the banks at Urmston, although I don't know its origin.

"The spot is one of three bends in the river in half a mile where a huge amount of trash gets washed up."

Mr Miners is campaigning for a better re-fill system and argues the "single-use bottle system is failing", having personally taken 19,500 glass bottles to recycling facilities.

If you have a story, I cover all things Oldham from food reviews and local business news to music and events, pubs, education, crime, property, health, community concerns and much more. Please email me at Olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk or send me a message on Twitter @Livbridge with your news.