Wybone Supports the Fight Against Knife Crime with Knife Amnesty Bin Upgrade

Over the years knife crime has been growing and has become a serious and prominent threat, especially to the younger generations. In fact, in the year ending March 2021 the Ministry of Justice recorded 18,553 disposals given for the possession of a knife or offensive weapon, with 19% of offenders aged between 10 and 17 years old.

This is why here at Wybone we are committed to our efforts in helping prevent knife crime. With every knife removed from the street and secured safely in our knife amnesty bins, there is one fewer weapon on the streets, endangering lives.

Following the success of knife amnesty bins in London, where they have seen a large number of weapons deposited and collected safely, Churches Together in Chapeltown and Harehills decided to join the effort to reduce knife crime:

“The bins are to be installed in two large youth centres in our area. The decisions about sites were made in conjunction with the local police who know the areas and their problems. The management of the sites were also keen on being involved. In addition, the bins will be accessible to adults who might want to dispose of old kitchen knives (that we all have).” – Churches Together

In Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire alone there are more than 100 serious knife crimes committed every week. Between January and June 2022, a total of 5257 serious offences involving a blade were recorded by forces in these areas, which is a staggering 12% rise on the previous 12 months.

Previously, Wybone knife amnesty bins were manufactured with a hasp and staple style fastener, allowing our customers to provide their own padlock. This design has proved to be very successful, but we value our customer feedback and we’re always happy to respond to any concerns. So, when we received some customer feedback from Churches Together in Chapeltown and Harehills highlighting the potential issue of determined people breaking the hasp itself, or picking and breaking the padlock in order to retrieve knives from inside the bin we decided that we needed to tackle this before it becomes a problem.

Our new and improved knife amnesty bins are fitted with two internal heavy-duty lock bolts that are extremely high security. These internal locks will prevent any tampering, and our discreet key access is unrecognisable, preventing glue, picking tools or other means being used to break in. We received lovely feedback from our customer, who has since informed us that they intend to continue their wonderful work in other communities.

We intend to help other areas to install them once we find out how well the community responds to ours. “We know that our initiative won’t totally end knife crime in Leeds but as a certain shop says, ‘Every little helps’.”

At Wybone we are hopeful that our improved design will continue to help communities in their fight against knife crime, as we believe in creating a safer and healthier environment for all. We are passionate about our corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics, and look forward to supporting future endeavours against social issues in any way that we can.