£56,000 Bin Rollout Part of Smart Waste Project : Scottish Councils Switch to Taylor Bins with Level Sensing Technology
In Scotland Perth & Kinross Council has shaken up its approach to waste collection by replacing its pink bag policy with 90 Taylor 1,100L Continental bins, each of which are fitted with fill level sensors.
The City Centre’s £56,000 bin rollout is part of a Smart Waste project, jointly funded by the Council and a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme known as Scotland’s 8th City – The Smart City, which is run by the Scottish Cities Alliance, the partnership of Scotland’s seven cities, and the Scottish Government.
Until now, the council has supplied large pink bin liners to 800 properties that do not have wheelie bins for access and space reasons, and asked them to leave filled bags on the pavement outside their property twice a week for collection.
Placing bags on the pavement for collection creates a number of issues including the scattering of waste by pests such as seagulls and bags being left out on the wrong day or overnight, which encourages illegal dumping. All of these issues were leaving residents, workers and visitors to the city having to face pavements strewn with waste.
A Council spokesperson commented:
“Scavenging seagulls and other pests means that our pink bag approach to waste collection in the city centre is no longer viable. It isn’t fair that those living, working and visiting Perth are subject to waste strewn across the streets.
“We want to keep the area as clean as possible to ensure that Perth is a place that everyone can be proud of. Our new bins will not only stop waste being scattered across streets by providing a robust alternative, but will allow our operations team to use time and resources more efficiently to provide better street cleansing services in other areas of Perth and Kinross.
“In addition, householders will no longer have to store waste until collection day as new containers can be accessed at any time.”
The inclusion of Egbert Taylor’s sensor technology, which has transformed traditional Taylor bins into smart bins, will also help the council’s street cleansing teams achieve more by providing information on fill levels and allowing them to make collection decisions based on what bins need emptying and missing out those that don’t.
Kevin Docherty, Area Business Manager at Egbert Taylor, said:
“This is a great example of how councils are marrying traditional containers with modern technology to create unique urban solutions with multiple benefits.
“The dual purpose nature of this solution in particular will result in cleaner streets for local residents, increase the council’s sustainability footprint by minimising unnecessary bin empties and enable collection teams to tackle other street cleansing jobs with the time they save.”
The new bins have been situated at 42 hubs around the city of Perth, all of which are located very close to the homes of the 800 properties that will now rely on them to dispose of their waste.
