Self Powered Bins Can Compact Waste & Communicate with Collection Crews : Solar Powered Bigbelly ‘Smart Bins’ Arrive in Leeds
In the north of England the City of Leeds has installed 17 solar powered Bigbelly compacting ‘smart bins’ which are able to communicate their status to council collection crews for emptying as and when necessary.
The Egbert Taylor Group, which manufactures the Bigbelly bin range, explained that Leeds City Council has integrated the stations into its waste collection strategy following a successful trial that began in 2014.
The Bigbelly smart station contains inbuilt solar powered compaction technology that is said to increases the unit’s capacity from 606 litres to 800 litres when full.
They also provide an ‘up-to-the-minute’ overview of the council’s collection route, communicating with collection operatives when the stations require emptying which Egbert Taylor said helps to save the council the time and cost attributable to waste collection when they do not.
“We need to be sure that we have the right kit that’s going to help us offer the most effective street cleaning service,” commented Councillor Mark Dobson, executive member for environmental protection and community safety at Leeds City Council.
“Now that we own a number of Big Belly bins we can really get to grips with how these could fit into our operations in different circumstances,” he added.
There are currently 440 litterbins in the city centre alone that are emptied, on average, twice a day. The council will monitor the 17 units to determine if Bigbelly they can help to offer an even more efficient street cleaning service alongside supporting the #1pieceofrubbish campaign.
“Our teams do a sterling job and we’ve got many active community groups, schools and organisations that are keen to make Leeds cleaner and greener,” noted Dobson. “It would be interesting to see how much cleaner Leeds would be if everyone picked up and disposed of one piece of litter every day.”
The Bigbelly smart stations have been situated on Briggate, key locations throughout the city including the train station and the Leeds First Direct Arena.
“Through harnessing Bigbelly’s technology, local authorities can now be smarter when it comes to waste collection by only emptying litterbins when they need to be emptied,” commented Mark Jenkins, sales director for the Egbert Taylor Group.
“This in turn reduces the number of waste collection vehicle movements, making streets cleaner and safer,” he added.
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