^{Grit Bin at The Quiraing, The Isle of Skye}

The Isle of Skye offers many gifts to armchair travelers who tune the Meta algorithms show a seemingly bottomless supply of misty green vistas punctured by rocky crags with mystical names like the Old Man of Scorr and The Quiraing. Scroll through these images and invariably, you’ll see a spot of yellow among the green and gray, sitting along a thin, snaking line of pavement that, instead of taking you out of the splendid, isolated beauty, somehow adds to it by revealing the perilous journey undertaken to reach that magical spot.

Now pinch and zoom in. That spot of yellow is a plastic box. Now pinch and zoom in even closer, and there’s rock holding the lid down. This is a grit box; a mix of salt and sand made available of public use in case of icy or snowy conditions. Scotland, indeed, the entire United Kingdom, takes their grit boxes very seriously. Even all of the potential locations available to place one of these helpful pieces of public infrastructure, why this particular spot? Among other factors, they have a decision tree:

^{Rural Grit Bin Criteria, Aberdeenshire Council}

The rural UK grit box comes in a variety of sizes, but are invariably yellow molded plastic bins that retail for £160 or roughly $200 in US dollars. The grit boxes stay put year around and receive periodic fillups when reported as empty. Still, plastic weathers like everything else; tight lid seals loosen as the plastic slowly hardens through cycles of heat and cold. The winds in Scotland are no joke, hence rocks holding down the lids is common, which in turn warps the plastic, making the rocks even more necessary. 

According to the DOT carpenters we’ve spoken to, Baltimore flirted with purchasing plastic saltboxes at one point, but the lure of free plastic storage containers proved too much for some Baltimoreans and they started disappearing, thus ending the experiment.

In Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, the molded yellow plastic grit boxes are also prevalent, but there are more lo-fi, older variants; the funky cousins of beloved saltboxes of Charm City. These shaggy grit boxes are a textured grey fiber-glass like material similar in size and shape to classic Baltimore saltboxes, but here’s where the similarities in form and function end. These Edinburgh grit boxes also have a slanted lid (albeit at a less pronounced angle), but that lid is not for you, grit box patron, for you have a gaping maw in the front of the box for which to get your grit. 

^{Grit Bin on Bells Brae near Water of Leith Walkway, Edinburgh}

This approach to girt access makes several assumption:

1. Gravity exists and will let the grit fall from what’s essentially a hopper down to the dispensing hole.*
2. A shovel will be required to get to and spread your grit.

This is a keen approach that seems more ergonomically friendly and less confusing. If you want grit, you need to come prepared, shovel in hand, instead of dumping out your Extra large Tesco cup of Irn-Bru and popping the lid to dig in. After all, this is the nation that invented** the steam engine and shoegaze; they aren’t messing around. Speaking of not messing around, you know that placement of these urban girt boxes are also governed by a familiar decision tree:

^{Urban Grit Bin Criteria, Aberdeenshire Council}

Decoding the Edinburgh Grit Box

Old school Edinburgh grit boxes are labeled with a series of block letters that, at first glance, seem instructable. Here’s your handy guide to decoding the Edinburgh gril box:

• CEC – City of Edinburgh Council (1996 to present)
• CD – Cleansing Department
• LRC – Lothian Regional Council (1974 to 1996)
• HD – Highway Department, part of the LRC
• SALT – It’s like girt, but more salty
• GRIT – It’s like salt, but more gritty
• BIN – It’s like box, but more bin-like

When you see a LRC HD box, you’re looking at a sturdy piece of infrastructure that’s at least 28 years old. 

^{Grit Bin outside Dairy Cemetery on Dundee St., Edinburgh}

So if this design is all that, why are these types of boxes relics of a previous time? Here are our theories on this: 

1. These grit boxes aren’t all that and this design stinks. Grit is a salt and sand mix, and any approach to distribution relying on gravity that also exposes the grit to the elements is fighting science. The grit is going to eventually turn into a grit slab.
2. These grit boxes are the cherry pitters of municipal infrastructure. Your boring, bog-standard yellow plastic bin can moonlight as tool storage,a transport container, or any number of other uses, while the lowly purpose-built grit box is only good for one function (and not so great at that).

How do the Scots themselves feel about the grit boxes? A review of open source reporting reveals that people want their grit boxes available and functional. As for their place in the local culture and consciousness, omnipresence of the grit box in far flung locations and every city’s streets seems to make them a non-entity similar to fire hydrants or light poles. They’re just there and only notable in absence or when not functioning properly. And of course, someone has put up a webpage about them, which warms our hearts.

So when you’ve luck enough to visit Scotland’s wild spaces and urban streets, keep an eye out for the biona grit. Here’s a list of UK grit bin maps by area, and ArcGIS-powered map for Edinburgh.

Beannachd leat!

*Copyright pending on the term “dispensing hole”.
**Some might say “improved” is more accurate. Scotland’s invention claims extend far and wide. Let’s just say they’re an innovative folk and leave it at that.