LAWR

STREET SCENE Quick-thinking bins Collecting waste from bins may appear straightforward to the public, but sophisti- cated technology is increasingly being used to create litter-free cities and improve efficiency. Liz Gyekye investigates. o l a r - p o w e r e d b i n s which automatically text council staff when they are nearly full have been used by the City of London Corporation since 2012 to combat litter and improve efficiency. The solar-powered bins, called 'Big Belly', are fitted with waste compactors, ensuring they need to be emptied less often than traditional designs. They also use wireless technology to alert the local authority when they are full, pre- venting unnecessary collection rounds and ensuring that overflowing bins will be a problem of the past. The bins can also act as wi-fi hotspots to provide residents with notifications from the councils City of London business improve- ment and performance manager Vince Dignam says the authority has installed 26 of the bins in key locations. Since installing the bins in 2012, it has gone from making around ten bin collections per day to around two collections per day. This has given crews the time to do other duties such as 'power washing'. The City maintains London's finan- cial centre and is home to St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge. Around 320,000 visitors pass through it every- day. Dignam says that the bin fits in with the authority's busy lifestyle: "We have all these major sites in our area and many tourists visit here. It is important that the place is kept clean and we have a high standard of cleanliness. Nobody wants to see overflowing bins. This helps. We also save on fuel costs." He says the compaction technology in the bin, which acts like a foot squashing the rubbish, has allowed the authority to take more rubbish from "full" bins. He says that the traditional bins give the appearance of being full when they are not because light materials such as burger boxes fill up the bins quickly. Another advantage of the high-tech bin is that it allows the authority to tackle security concerns, as it has a mechanism for the user to lock it. Dignam says this helps the author- ity because it has had bomb threats in the past, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. It actually had to limit the amount of traditional bins it put out during this period. As well as providing security benefits, the bin also allows the user to analyse trends. The wireless monitoring system enables refuse collection teams to view the fullness of each bin on computers and smart phones. For example, City of London has been able to see if com- mercial businesses are using the bins to dump their waste. This can allow them to take enforcement action against cul- prits caught dumping this waste in the "wrong place", Dignam says. Dignam found another bin analysis showed that some newspaper vendors were dumping newspapers they hadn't distributed at the end of a working day. This made the bin unnecessarily full. However, Dignam says one downside of the bin is that it cannot be put under- neath large objects such as trees because it relies on daylight to power it (it needs eight hours of daylight to power the compactor for one month's use). It also had teething issues with electronics but this has now been fixed. Big Belly Solar chief executive Don Coughlan says that, currently, more than 100 councils in the UK and Ireland use Big Belly bins which are manufac- tured in the US. It costs £22 per week to rent out one bin. Coughlan says that, on average, councils have seen an 86% reduction in collections after installing the bins. Some critics are sceptical about the costs. Tower Hamlets Council head of street clean Simon Baxter says the option is too costly for the borough. The borough has opted for a QR-code system on bins instead, where the public swipe the bins with a smartphone and inform the councils if it is overflowing or not. Nevertheless, Nottingham City Council street scene operations man- ager Andy Crofts says the council could make money from the bins it has installed from shared-advertising rev- enue. This is becuase Kindle-like panels can be attached to the side of the bins to provide information about a public event or to notify passers-by about a police or traffic incident. Nottingham City Council will be tri- alling this system in November. All in all, it seems like this innova- tion is helping councils to take great strides forward and keep streets tidy. With its ability to simplify bin collec- tions, these solar-powered bins should prove popular. S July 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 23 High-tech bin is powered by a battery and sends a text message to its owner when it is 80% full and needs emptying " Nobody wants to see overflowing bins "

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