“Intelligent rubbish bins” that send out a message when they need emptying are very popular and useful in Brussels’ pedestrian zone.
This fact prompting the city council to invest in more of them.
18 of the solar-powered bins were installed in the city centre in November 2015. Each bin uses the photovoltaic energy to compress the waste, allowing it to store six times as much as a standard trash bin – 480 litres instead of 80.
“Intelligent bins” can hold much more waste and thus do not need to be emptied as often. The bins also transmit a message when they are nearly full – this allows to avoiding unnecessary visits by the collection team.
Brussels city hall said this allowed waste collectors to focus on other tasks, such as cleaning and sweeping streets. “Given the experiment’s success, we plan to increase the presence of these bins on the city’s streets,” the council said in a statement.