Dublin rubbish collection goes high-tech

Residents of South Dublin will be the first in Ireland to join a new hi-tech pay-as-you-throw system, to replace bin tags, dubbed ‘chip and bin’.

Currently people in Ireland have to buy tags to fit to their rubbish bags if they want their waste removed by the council.

However, problems with tag theft and forgery have forced councillors in South Dublin to consider an alternative.

Wheelie bins in South Dublin will now be fitted with a unique chip that will tell a computer on the refuse truck whether or not the bin’s owner has waste-removal credit in their account.

If the bin has sufficient credit, then the waste will be removed. If not, the computer will prevent the refuse truck from lifting the bin.

The unique chips will be contained in a sticky label, with issuing of the labels expected to be complete by the end of October.

Despite the high-tech nature of the new system, the council says the decision to go down the chip and bin route was taken with the interests of residents foremost in their mind.

John Quinlivan, a Senior Executive Officer at the council says the system makes things as simple as possible for customers by improving security and increasing the number of available payment methods for waste removal.

UK pilots of chip and bin have been carried out, but proved unpopular.

Sources
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15227&channel=0&title=South+Dublin+gets+high-tech+pay-as-you-throw
http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/951/55/
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/council-to-dump-tags-for-new-chip-and-bin-system-1458846.html