Council to trial ‘smart bins’ in CBD

Council is set to trial new waste technology in the city centre with the installation of "smart bins".

Smart bins operate on solar power, and feature a compacting mechanism to allow bins to hold up to eight times more waste.

Council's General Manager, James Roncon, said the trial was being undertaken as part of Council's Smart Community Framework, which aims to increase Council's service to the community by utilising technology.

"Bins are currently emptied, cleaned, and maintained as part of Council's regular waste service and asset management processes, but we want to look at better ways of doing things," he said.

"Smart bins can be equipped with advertising panels, lighting, graphic wraps, speakers - they can even come with installed routers that could allow us to build on our existing free Wi-Fi network.

"Bins are a common fixture around the city, so it makes perfect sense to think outside the box and explore what other services can be delivered through that infrastructure."

Mr Roncon said Council would seek quotes for the installation of seven bins in the CBD area.

"We’ve set aside $50,000 in this year's budget to pursue this trial, so we'll investigate what options are on the market and identify which product would be best for Broken Hill,” he said.

"We recognise that a lot of the infrastructure in the CBD could use some improvement, and if this trial is successful we can then look at rolling the bins out on a larger scale, including other areas around the city."

Council expects to begin sourcing quotes this week.