Smart Litter Bins at Seaton

[Olivers Army]

The litter bins at Seaton are nearly always full so I don't have a problem with trying something new but £6,000 (which is more than I paid for my car) is bang over the top and why buy 15 all at once when you don't even know if they will solve the problem? I buy equipment for the company I work for and I'd be out on my ar** if I spent £90,000 without knowing it would definitely improve things or solve a problem. If I was thinking of spending £90,000 on something, what would usually happen is that the company would allow us to try out the equipment first before we went ahead and purchased 15 of them.

I guess in a culture where your ar** is never on the line, such caution in spending large amounts of money doesn't exist.

[Inspector Knacker]

Might I suggest they just buy bigger bins?

[mk1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuIMZNxqCw0

Note how he simply avoids the overflowing bin problem here:

https://youtu.be/GuIMZNxqCw0?t=4m31s

[pieface]

The salesperson who sold them these bins must be laughing at the idiots who paid that price..

UK government has launched a £500000 fund which reckons it can be used to buy smart bins by applicants. The 15 bins bought by these would account for nearly a fifth of that fund!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-fund-launched-to-reduce-litter-through-innovative-projects

[hpoolsown]

Are these the same bins our clowncil paid 6k for ? big difference in the cost if they are
'BigBelly' Solar powered bins come to Nottingham
Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 13.07.33The Project

The city of Nottingham has deployed 'BigBelly' solar powered compactor rubbish bins to replace stainless steel bins in the city centre after complaints that some street bins, particularly those near fast food outlets, overflowed at weekends.
Each bin can hold up to eight times more waste than standard bins and sends out an alert over the cellular GPRS data network to maintenance crew mobile phones and a central office to indicate that it is ready to be emptied.
Progress so far
The initial order of 130 bins was the largest outside the US at the time. There are now 170 bins in the city centre
Overall weekly collections have reduced from 4,400 to just 260 and there have been significant reductions in the need to pick up street litter.
Each bin costs £3,500 compared to around £400 for a standard bin – this is funded through a leasing arrangement which costs £98,748 per annum. Revenue is generated by the sale of space on the side of the bins for advertising.
Moving forward
More information
Expert view

This deployment is interesting because Nottingham is one of a select few cities in the world that have installed expensive smart litter bins at very low cost to the City by funding them from the revenue generated by carrying advertising on the sides of the bins

[mk1]

These bins have functions they are not keen to advertise

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23665490

The City of London Corporation has asked a company to stop using recycling bins to track the smartphones of passers-by.
Renew London had fitted devices into 12 "pods", which feature LCD advertising screens, to collect footfall data by logging nearby phones.
Chief executive Kaveh Memari said the company had "stopped all trials in the meantime".
The corporation has taken the issue to the Information Commissioner's Office.
The action follows concerns raised by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, after details of the technology used in the bins emerged in the online magazine Quartz.
Mr Memari told the BBC that the devices had only recorded "extremely limited, encrypted, aggregated and anonymised data" and that the current technology was just being used to monitor local footfall, in a similar way as a web page monitors traffic.
He added that more capabilities could be developed in the future, but that the public would be made aware of any changes.
The bins, which are located in the Cheapside area of central London, log the media access control (MAC) address of individual smartphones - a unique identification code carried by all devices that can connect to a network.
A spokesman for the City of London Corporation said: "Irrespective of what's technically possible, anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public."

[mk1]

Sample add...........

[Inspector Knacker]

What I do like is the idea of naming them after councillors.

[jeffh]

Are these the same bins our clowncil paid 6k for ? big difference in the cost if they are
'BigBelly' Solar powered bins come to Nottingham
Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 13.07.33The Project

The city of Nottingham has deployed 'BigBelly' solar powered compactor rubbish bins to replace stainless steel bins in the city centre after complaints that some street bins, particularly those near fast food outlets, overflowed at weekends.
Each bin can hold up to eight times more waste than standard bins and sends out an alert over the cellular GPRS data network to maintenance crew mobile phones and a central office to indicate that it is ready to be emptied.
Progress so far
The initial order of 130 bins was the largest outside the US at the time. There are now 170 bins in the city centre
Overall weekly collections have reduced from 4,400 to just 260 and there have been significant reductions in the need to pick up street litter.
Each bin costs £3,500 compared to around £400 for a standard bin – this is funded through a leasing arrangement which costs £98,748 per annum. Revenue is generated by the sale of space on the side of the bins for advertising.
Moving forward
More information
Expert view

This deployment is interesting because Nottingham is one of a select few cities in the world that have installed expensive smart litter bins at very low cost to the City by funding them from the revenue generated by carrying advertising on the sides of the bins

In contrast the 15 bins at Seaton cost £90,000 and although they have the technology seem to be treated as normal bins and only emptied once / day and not on demand.  This then begs the question why bother paying all that money and fully utilising the technology - it's like buying a car then using it as a skip.
This morning at Seaton the red "I'm full" lights were flashing and the surrounding area was strewn with litter but to make matters worse the bins themselves were dirty with icecream, food deposits etc. which then makes the area look horrible.
It looks as though in typical HBC fashion we have bought some shiny toys that we don't use properly and certainly don't maintain - give it a year and we will have standard bins back.
It these bins came from the USA, did anybody go on a fact-finding tour - I wonder?

[Johnny Bongo]

If these bins came from the USA, did anybody go on a fact-finding tour - I wonder?

Please don't give the SCABs any ideas for holidays!  .  Although they've got to spend and account for that £11k Rifty money somehow!  How about just putting some concrete 'boots' on the usual suspects , dropping them off in Seaton...with signs around their necks saying...' Please put your rubbish in my big mouth'.  Then they can recycle all the rubbish and spout it at the next Council meeting!  Doh...of course, they do that already! 

[kevplumb]

90,000 well spent then 

[jeffh]

90,000 well spent then 

It was the same last week - they don't appear to be emptying them on demand (when it sends a signal to mission control) only on a morning when the truck does it's rounds, so it's no real improvment

[not4me]

By my reckoning, you can buy around 250 conventional bins for £90,000

https://uk.glasdon.com/

[Inspector Knacker]

Their two selling points are they compress the waste and let it be known when they're full.
I really can't see them compressing that much waste and assuming they need a power supply there's the cost of installing the supply and power they use.
Then, if it sends out it's SOS call to be emptied, they'll all emit a signal at varying times. So do the bins have individual collections when full or are they all emptied together at the same time.?
If so this defeats the purpose as multiple journeys will have to be made wasting time, fuel and mileage to empty individual bins, and if they're emptied together what's the point of the signal?
Just buy bigger bins.

[jeffh]

Their two selling points are they compress the waste and let it be known when they're full.
I really can't see them compressing that much waste and assuming they need a power supply there's the cost of installing the supply and power they use.
Then, if it sends out it's SOS call to be emptied, they'll all emit a signal at varying times. So do the bins have individual collections when full or are they all emptied together at the same time.?
If so this defeats the purpose as multiple journeys will have to be made wasting time, fuel and mileage to empty individual bins, and if they're emptied together what's the point of the signal?
Just buy bigger bins.

They are solar powered and, I believe, compact waste to 5 times it's original volume.  It will be interesting to see if they survive winter by the North Sea as they were only trialled over a 3 month period earlier this year.