The (not so) smart bins: Council’s £5,500 solar-powered litter-munching machines were meant to alert dustmen when they needed emptying… but IT glitch left trash piled high on roadside

• Smart bins that warn when they need emptying have been left overflowing
• Bigbelly bins on the High Street in Dinnington glitched and did not alert council
• The solar powered giant rubbish-crunchers suffered ‘intermittent problems’

Not-so-clever smart bins — programmed to tell council staff when they need emptying — have been left overflowing with rubbish by a glitch.

Under the high-tech plan, the solar powered giant rubbish-crunchers were supposed to emit a signal when full.

But they were left spewing rubbish over the High Street in Dinnington, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, due a malfunction.

From left: Shop manager Gareth Masters, Cllr Sarah Allen, Rotherham Council staff Graham Fields and Christopher Wells, and student Denver Milnes, with one of the new Bigbelly bins in 2019 as the council launched a trial 

The ‘Bigbelly’ bins, fitted with a solar-powered hydraulic ram to crush the waste, hold eight times more rubbish than regular bins, so they do not need emptying as often.

Tory councillor Ben Whomersley told a Rotherham Council meeting the bins had been left overflowing.

Councillor Dominic Beck, environment boss on the at the Labour council, said: ‘There have been some intermittent problems when we have been rolling out the new bins.

‘They have not always been sending the alerts that they should be doing to our staff to let them know that it needs emptying.

‘This may have affected Dinnington high street, but we are reassured now that the problems with some of those bins have been fixed and rectified.’ 

The bins were first trialled by Rotherham Council in 2019. They have a 12-volt battery that powers the internal waste compactor, and need just eight hours of sunlight per month to function as intended.

They are meant to alert the council’s street cleansing teams when full and in need of emptying.

Bigbelly bins are used in more than 50 countries. The Massachusetts company also has its bins in all 50 states in the US. 

They were first trialled in the UK in 2011, and cost up to £5,500 each to buy, depending on individual deals. 

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