Coming to street near you, the £5k robo-bin
NEW ‘robo-bins’ costing millions of pounds are to set to appear on streets across Scotland as the war against litter goes hi-tech.
The solar-powered bins use in-built compactors to crush litter and even send a text message when they need to be emptied.
Each bin costs £5,000 and councils are planning to spend millions of pounds on them.
The smart bins crush rubbish to stop bulky cartons such as pizza boxes spilling out onto the pavement and send a message to council workers when they are nearly full.
Around 100 are already in operation north of the Border, mostly in Aberdeen, but they are expected to become a common sight as local authorities in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee stage trials. However, the initial outlay will be controversial and, even if the bins do save money, it may well be at the expense of human jobs.
In England, where the US innovation has been rolled out more extensively, there have been accusations that the bins are ‘vile’, ‘ugly’ and ‘unhygienic’.
But the robo-bins have also been credited with restoring tidiness to the streets of the Fife coastal town of Anstruther, famed for its fish and chip shops. Ten were installed on the seafront in 2014 to stop seagulls scavenging on takeaway litter.
David Shields, landlord of Anstruther’s Ship Tavern, said: ‘You’d come down at six or seven o’clock in the morning and the place would be a mess.
‘The seagulls were raiding the bins and taking out the cardboard chip boxes – and they were pretty aggressive, too.
‘But the smart bins have been a massive success. The harbour area is clean and tidy now and there are fewer birds about, all of which is important in leaving a good impression on visitors to the town.’ The bins are the invention of Massachusetts company Bigbelly. Solar panels power an internal crusher that reduces litter to an eighth of its size and the bins are also sealed to stop raids by vermin.
In Scotland other coastal towns have invested in the technology. Kirkwall in Orkney has four robobins, Dunbar in East Lothian three and St Andrews one. Stirling Council has ten in outlying rural areas and plans more for the city centre.
Trials in Largs, Ayrshire, generated an 87 per cent saving in man hours spent emptying bins and there are pilot schemes about to start in cities across the Central Belt.
An Aberdeen City Council spokesman said: ‘The smart bins email us twice a day to tell us if they need emptied and this means more efficient programming of bin uplifts.’