Bomb-proof bins to be installed in London

The steel armour-plated bins have been developed to withstand at least 75 per cent of a blast's force and contain the fireball resulting from an explosion.

When not being blown to bits, they would also provide pedestrians with news and travel information such as the state of shares on the FTSE 100.
Hundreds of them are due to be installed through London's financial district next year after the British company behind them spent five years testing them to destruction in the Mexican desert.

Media Metrica, the British company that has come up with the idea, is also in talks to install them in other global financial centres including New York and Dubai.
Digital screens on the side will relay news, financial and travel information to passers-by throughout the day.

Brian James, the company's chief operating officer, said: "The ability to communicate directly to the financial audience, in real time like this, has never existed before."
Bins were removed from the London Underground in 1991 following an IRA blast in Victoria Station that February which killed one person and injured 38.

Most were removed from the City the following year, and the last few were taken away after a large bomb left in a bin in Bishopsgate killed one man and injured 44 in April 1993.
Environmental groups have blamed the lack of bins for an increasing tide of litter across the country.

However, with each costing £30,000 and weighing roughly a ton, it is unlikely they will be used in anything but the most sensitive locations.

The plastic surround is made from recycled materials and has an LCD screen on which news, weather and sports reports can be shown.
Each unit is big enough to contain a typical household wheelie bin - to make it easy for binmen to collect and empty.

During an emergency such as the 7/7 attacks, the screen's content could be changed within minutes to direct Londoners-away from certain areas or Tube stations.
The bins are the work of entrepreneurs Kaveh Memari and Brian James, who met in Canada and studied at the London School of Economics before setting up a company, Media Metrica.

They plan to offer the bins, which they prefer to call "recycling units", free to London local authorities and recoup the cost via sponsorship from firms keen to emphasise their corporate social responsibility - London currently recycles only 25 per cent of its waste.