Liverpool to trial solar bins to help revolutionise litter collection

Liverpool City Council is turning to solar power in a bid to revolutionise litter collection in the city’s major parks and high-traffic areas.

The Council is set to trial the solar bins, which are designed to significantly reduce the need to empty them.

The solar-powered bins have sensor technology fitted and when close to being full, a compactor is triggered to crush down the litter allowing the bin to take up to 100 per cent more litter than standard litter bins before it needs emptying.

The super-smart solar bins also send a signal to the waste depot when it is almost full, which improves the Council’s collection efficiency, reducing both the time spent emptying bins and vehicle related carbon emissions.

The first 20 bins will be installed this week at a number of key locations across the city, to test them in a variety of sites:

• Lime Street piazza
• Sefton Park 
• Newsham Park 
• Ranelagh Street 
• Whitechapel 
• Church Street
• West Derby Village 
• Woolton Church Road
• County Road 
• Lark Lane 
• Allerton Road
• Liverpool FC – outside Anfield stadium

Liverpool City Council is no stranger to pioneering bin technology to tackle waste, having implemented the UK’s largest network of subterranean super bins in areas where there were no alley ways to store wheelie bins. The 14 areas have seen an 80 per cent reduction in bin bag related litter as well as a 50 per cent reduction in vermin reports.

This latest investment in new technology comes just weeks after the Council agreed to adopt a hat-trick of new measures to tackle litter and tipping and improve its satisfaction levels for cleansing from 39 per cent closer to the national average of 61 per cent.

This £2.5million plan will see the appointment of a new environment and anti-social behaviour taskforce supported by a new external enforcement provider. The Council will also seek to increase fixed penalty notices to the maximum level permitted under new legislation – for litter, fly tipping and other environmental offences i.e. graffiti and dog fouling.

As well as developing an anti-litter programme with Keep Britain Tidy and community groups, the Council has also invested in CCTV to identify and prosecute fly-tippers, currently deals with more than 1,300 fly-tipping incidents a month, of which more than 85 per cent are cleared within five working days.

Waste Facts:

• More than 300,000 bins are emptied every week in Liverpool by LSSL.
• Just 0.03 per cent of these are reported as a missed collection.
• Domestic waste currently accounts for 2% of the city’s carbon emissions (51,751 tonnes CO2 equivalent).

Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said:

“These new solar powered bins are a great idea and I’m delighted we’re looking at using new technologies to help us improve how we collect litter.

“The fact that the bins know when to compact down the waste inside and then when to send a signal that their almost full is going to have a huge impact on the time we spend emptying bins.

“This is just a trial to begin with so we’ll need to analyse the results to assess their true impact on these key locations and whether we roll them out to even more locations across the city.

“As well as investing in new technologies we also need to the public to play their part by binning their waste. To keep Liverpool tidy requires a big effort from us all and the public will see that from the Council over the coming months as we set up the waste taskforce.”

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