Littering is one of those nagging irritations that genuinely grinds my gears more than it probably should. Walk down any street, in any city, in any village, town or city, and it's unlikely you'll go even 10 seconds without coming across somebody's discarded detritus and festering filth (alliteration is fun). Is it because there are simply not enough bins? Are people just that lazy? Or do more of us than we realise actively enjoy destroying the planet chocolate bar wrapper by cigarette box? Because I'd like to think of myself as an eternal optimist, I'll go with the former, and thankfully, the great city of New York is taking some pretty nifty steps in combating this problem, not by increasing the number of garbage bins in The Big Apple, but by making the existing ones more visible and useful. No we're not talking neon signs here, but free, solar powered Wi-Fi!
A Massachusetts-based waste management company called Bigbelly has struck upon the genius idea of turning the trash and recycling bins of New York city into wireless hotspots. The project kicked off in downtown Manhattan, where almost 200 of the “Smart Bins” have been installed, each of which also contain a chip that detects when the bin is full (or kicking up a pong), allowing bin men to make a pick-up when and where they’re needed most. As useful as the technology was, however, the general consensus is that there was still more to be done with these high-tech bins.
A Massachusetts-based waste management company has struck upon the genius idea of turning the trash and recycling bins of New York city into wireless hotspots
Last winter, plans were set in motion by Bigbelly and New York's Downtown Alliance to turn two of the bins into wireless hotspots, and the initial results were surprisingly promising, with the 50 to 75 megabit per second bandwidth offered by the devices completely uncompromised by being nestled inside a bin. Also, because the signal was being broadcast from a street level, there was no interference from the surrounding skyscrapers.
Leila Dillon, the vice president of global marketing at Bigbelly, said: “We are a smart solar-powered, connected technology platform that is literally sitting in the streets of New York. We are exactly where the people are.” This is what makes the idea so powerful, with bins generally positioned in places that tend to attract a high footfall. Free Wi-Fi isn't the only benefit of the smart bins either, as they could also be able to help the government collect data about waste management or display public service announcements and alerts. There's also the added bonus that people will be more aware of the bins, which will only serve to help the city's overflowing trash problem.
Last year, the New York city government announced plans to turn almost all of its 10,000 largely unused pay phones into fully functioning Wi-Fi hubs
Of course, Bigbelly isn’t the only company bringing free Wi-Fi to the bustling streets of New York. Last year, the city government announced plans to turn almost all of its 10,000 largely unused pay phones into Wi-Fi hubs, in a scheme that has proven to be incredibly popular. If the smart bin scheme takes off in the same way those schemes already have, this could mean there will be few places in New York left by the end of the decade where you won't be able to wirelessly access the internet without having to rely on notoriously spotty 3 and 4G connections. Now, when can we expect such a service in London?
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK who always makes a concerted effort to avoid littering. Within reason.
