Ask Liverpool: Are new super-smart solar bins the answer to the city's litter issue?
Liverpool City Council is fixing its eyes on the sun to help improve litter collection in its major parks and high footfall areas. The Council is set to trial a new generation of super-smart solar bins that reduces the need to empty them.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Liverpool City Council is trialling a new generation of solar-powered bins to tackle
00:05litter. We have been on the streets to ask if you think we have a problem.
00:09Definitely, definitely, yeah.
00:13It's everywhere you go, you find this everywhere,
00:16and you don't see anyone going out cleaning it up at all.
00:20I think everyone has a problem, doesn't it? You know, with litter, you know, it's just one of those.
00:27In the city centre, yeah, definitely.
00:30There's lots of bins, why can't people put the rubbish in the bin?
00:33The solar-powered bins have sensor technology fitted, and when close to being full,
00:37a compactor is triggered to crush down the litter, allowing the bins to take up to 100%
00:41more than standard litter bins before it needs emptying.
00:45The super-smart bins also send a signal to the waste depot when it's almost full,
00:49which improves the council's collection efficiency.
00:52The first 20 bins are to be installed at a number of high footfall areas across the city,
00:57including parks outside Anfield Stadium and here in the city centre.
01:01But are super-smart solar bins the answer to the city's litter issue?
01:06It will help, but I think we need a bit of education. You know, it's our city,
01:10please don't litter us. It looks dreadful if you have tourists here and there's litter everywhere.
01:16I think it's more of an attitude, really, more than anything, isn't it? You know, with the,
01:20how, you know, people drop little anyway, don't they? So it's one of those.
01:25It might help, but I think there's enough people to get out and clean it.
01:30It'll help, but the people themselves, they're just little oaks, aren't they?
01:36Why don't you just put your, you've got a bag, put it in your bag, use the bins, just feel lazy.
01:41I often think about Bill Bryson's book about Britain, Notes from a Small Island,
01:46first published in 1995, in which, once arriving in Liverpool, he exclaimed,
01:52they were having a festival of litter when I arrived.
01:55Liverpool still has a way to go to clean up our streets.