back to article And they said IoT was trash: Sheffield 'smart' bins to start screaming when they haven't been emptied for a fortnight

Sheffield authorities have enlisted four companies to help improve rubbish collection and road maintenance in the northern English city through a network of sensors. Road contractor Amey is working on the project alongside Hull-based connected cities firm Connexin, as well as the usual suspects from Silicon Valley, including …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How is that going to work?

    Are they only going to empty bins that report "I'm full"?

    Isn't that going to lead to more journeys to empty the bins in a street than with the currency weekly / bi-weekly / monthly collections that are currently run?

    1. BazNav

      Re: How is that going to work?

      More likely they'll use it as an excuse to empty bins less frequently. They'll wait for more than 50% (if they're being generous) of the bins to be full before scheduling a collection. Then they'll levy an extra charge on all the people who's bins were filled faster than the average as they are the problem residents who are unfairly taking more than their fare share of council resources

      1. Andy The Hat Silver badge

        Re: How is that going to work?

        We were part of a 'smart bin' pilot where bin weight was logged on emptying using a smart tag. In the long term it was fully expected that 'pay as you dump' would be introduced. The experiment was abandoned as people dumped rubbish in other people's empty bins. It was "designed to increase the levels of recycling" so we had the bin gestapo to check bins ... Unfortunately, as the system was designed by a bureaucrat, you were expected to produce a certain mass of recyclable waste but they hadn't considered that the greener you try to be, the less recyclable waste you produce and the more likely you are to get a visit for not recycling ... Yes, you were targeted as not green because you don't produce enough waste ... doh!

        This system will basically be the same - bins full too soon, bill the customer; general waste filled too soon - bill the customer. It's all going to link in with full privatisation of waste disposal and charging households directly (without taking the cost off the Poll Tax obviously). If the system is used for street bins, who in their right mind will send someone out to empty one bin in a street that's full but leave the others if they haven't triggered the sensor yet?

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: How is that going to work?

          However it MAY result in data that enables a more efficient planning of services - by knowing which bins fill up more quickly, they can provision more in that area etc etc.

          Because asking Trigger (and his broom) where people drop litter and which bins fill up quicker was too much like hard work.

          1. AMBxx Silver badge
            Black Helicopters

            Re: How is that going to work?

            Self driving bins?

            1. TRT Silver badge

              Re: How is that going to work?

              What a load of rubbish!

            2. JetSetJim
              Coat

              Re: How is that going to work?

              It's already a motorsport

            3. BaconEatingMachine
              Joke

              Re: How is that going to work?

              Colin has you covered https://youtu.be/nUpzC1QP8z4?t=85

        2. Anonymous Custard
          Headmaster

          Re: How is that going to work?

          If the system is used for street bins, who in their right mind will send someone out to empty one bin in a street that's full but leave the others if they haven't triggered the sensor yet?

          This is council bureaucracy, so right minds don't come into it...

        3. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: How is that going to work?

          Yes, you were targeted as not green because you don't produce enough waste ... doh!

          Where I live bins have to sit in the front garden as there's nowhere else for them and they get moved to the pavement for collection days.

          If they are almost empty and not going to be a health hazard I don't move them out, don't expect them to be emptied, saves them effort and speeds up their round.

          All undone by complaints that I am not putting my bins out and their having to come into my garden to fetch them.

          "Ignore the bins which aren't put out" apparently isn't a solution they will accept.

        4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: How is that going to work?

          "without taking the cost off the Poll Tax obviously"

          Poll Tax? I'm not too sure what that say about you. Poor memory? Bad memories of the past? A certain political leaning? The Poll Tax is long gone.

    2. 0laf

      Re: How is that going to work?

      This is more usually being considered for street bins not domestic waste.

      When you apply it to domestic waste the politics gets in the way for a start then the unreliability will end up costing more. It should work ok for public waste bins in fixed locations.

    3. Chris G

      Re: How is that going to work?

      Well, you wouldn't go very far working for a council if you ask questions like that.

      You have to keep your head down and not make waves, especially when it could be interfering with somebody's holidays courtesy of a salesman.

    4. Muscleguy

      Re: How is that going to work?

      I not infrequently decline to have my bins emptied if strong winds are forecast. I'm a single occupier in a family home so the bins are NEVER full. But being 1/3 to 1/2 full makes them much more stable in wind.

      I'm also the sort of person who puts his bins out in the morning if it's windy. Too many of my neighbours don't think about this and their rubbish ends up being blown hither and yon when their bin is blown over. Also do not place the bin so the wind can flip open the lid for the same reason.

      It only takes a little thought, and the Met Office App.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How is that going to work?

        "I'm also the sort of person who puts his bins out in the morning if it's windy. "

        Our local council insists on bins being put on the edge of the property for collection. My corner three storey house generates vortices that amplify wind speeds. On a windy day I have to listen for the rattling of the glass collection before going out with my recycle boxes.

        Afterwards I go down the street to salvage the wind-blown materials - and rescue neighbours' now empty bins and particularly lids. The latter rarely fit properly to contain their contents - having in the past blown off and been run over by the bin lorry. There is no way to order just a new lid - you get a whole new box delivered and you are left to dispose of the old one.

        1. Richard 12 Silver badge

          Re: How is that going to work?

          And the old bin won't fit in the new one, either.

  2. jaywin

    Ahem

    "a £2bn scheme to improve and maintain the city's highway infrastructure" and cut all the healthy trees down

    Well, until they get stopped by the courts and the council have to backtrack rather than revealing the terms of the contract they have with Amey. Besides, cutting trees down does wonders to CO2 figures.

    1. Christoph

      Re: Ahem

      And it makes it a lot easier to know when "trees need watering" if there aren't any.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ahem

        How very Le Corbusier.

        1. FlossyThePig

          Re: Ahem

          Didn't LC want to have his buildings in parkland?

      2. macjules

        Re: Ahem

        When my trees need watering I shall make a sufficient detour on the way back from my local.

    2. EBG

      that's because ...

      .... the trees were blocking the airflow over roads. And hence the air quality.

    3. Beau
      Unhappy

      Re: Ahem

      'Sheffield City Council has struggled to cut CO2 levels to meet EU Air Quality limits.'

      Well, at least that's one problem they won't have to struggle with for much longer.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Ahem

        Guess which country was one of those in the forefront of creating and setting those limits.

        To some extent, I bet there are people in the EU thanking their lucky stars that the UK is out and will no longer be introducing and pushing for onerous new regulations.

  3. cantankerous swineherd

    perhaps they could start sweeping the pavements and clearing the drain gulleys instead of playing at computers?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      My local council is wonderful at street sweeping. When the litter builds to an unreasonable level I send them a message and within days a cleaner hobbles round and picks up the waste.

      Of course the next day those selfish twats who eat their Subway and Costa takeaways and throw the remains out of their car windows have relittered the road but that's how the council does things.

      Personally I'd put a few heavily armed Litter Enforcement Patrol Officers on the case and the delivery of Judge Dredd style justice would deter the can't be arsed looking for a bin types.

      1. JohnFen

        Your area should do what my US state does: set the fine for littering high enough that it becomes something the cops actively look for.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Our cpps don't get to *keep* the fines. That's what our British "wardens" etc do. But very much... because of the risk of economic pressure being a conflict of interest... we don't have privatised police.

          1. Pete4000uk

            We dont have privatised police

            ...yet

          2. JohnFen

            Our cops don't get to keep them either. The incentive high fines bring is that it makes the police department look better when they can cite higher figures, so cops tend to pay more attention to the things that bring higher punishments.

  4. katrinab Silver badge
    Flame

    "Reducing air pollution is another goal as Sheffield City Council has struggled to cut CO2 levels to meet EU Air Quality limits."

    Chopping down all their trees certainly didn't help

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Unless there's some kind of EU or UK government grant for tree planting schemes that they can tap into... after all, money doesn't grow on them.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        But after the government adopted the leaf as the new currency the only way to combat inflation s to cut down all the trees.

      2. Caver_Dave Silver badge

        Absolutely

        They have planted new trees in roads not too far from the mature trees that received much attention (unfortunately, much of that from chainsaws!). And yes, I am told that they received a grant for planting the fairly ragged saplings!

    2. G R Goslin

      Ah, but getting rid of the steel industry did!

      1. TRT Silver badge

        The council's reputation can hardly be described as stainless.

  5. DavCrav

    "CityOS"

    Go with the abbreviated version that sounds the same: ctOS. Just watch out for Aiden Pearce.

  6. Aladdin Sane
    Coat

    IoT?

    The security will be rubbish.

    I'll see myself out.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: IoT?

      It depends what gets dumped into /bin

    2. The Pi Man

      Re: IoT?

      Internet Of Trash ?

      1. Aladdin Sane
        Trollface

        Re: IoT?

        Isn't that just the internet?

        1. Tom 35

          Re: IoT?

          No, it has less cats.

          1. DiViDeD
            Headmaster

            Re: IoT?

            No, it has FEWER cats.

            There, FTFY

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: IoT?

              I lived in Sheffield, and I guarantee that bin day generates MORE cats.

              And the OED has Alfred the Great using LESS instead of FEWER, and Webster's states that fewer over less is a stylistic choice by the author of a book on grammar in 1770...

              1. DiViDeD

                Re: IoT?

                the OED has Alfred the Great using LESS instead of FEWER

                Ah yes, but Alfred the Great said a lot of things now, didn't he?

  7. benoliver999

    Another publicly funded project going towards closed source black box waste of time IoT BS.

    I love Sheffield, but the council really has shown itself to be inept in the last 10 years.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Inept? You're being far too polite!

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Inept would be a massive improvement on what it was 20-30 years ago

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        I went to a talk by a pathologist from Sheffield back in the '80s. His standard opening was "Greetings from the People's Republic of South Yorkshire".

  8. Korev Silver badge
    Coat

    Dustbin naming

    Do you refer to each houses dustbin as /usr/bin ?

    1. UncleNick

      Re: Dustbin naming

      Mine are in /home/*/bin

      1. Korev Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Dustbin naming

        If people don't like it and hit their bins then it could be #!/bin/bash

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Dustbin naming

          you guys

          1. Korev Silver badge
            Coat

            Re: Dustbin naming

            Oh come on, we've just bin making puns...

  9. dak

    Wrong gas, Shirley?

    What has carbon dioxide have to do with air quality?

    Don't you mean carbon monoxide?

    1. The Nazz

      Re: Wrong gas, Shirley?

      Air quality?

      Personally i'd rather have somewhat drier air than the piss wet through stuff we'd had relentlessly for the last 6 months.

      Which i'm led to believe is a consequence of so much extra CO2 in the atmosphere.

      Would it be too much to ask if our Metropolitan Council would actually consider providing some, any, public bins in the first place? Tbf the residential bin service is good and reliable.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Wrong gas, Shirley?

        "Would it be too much to ask if our Metropolitan Council would actually consider providing some, any, public bins in the first place? Tbf the residential bin service is good and reliable."

        Initially, public litter bins were removed from the areas with large footfall such as railway stations and shopping areas because the IRA started putting bombs in them. Councils quickly realised that this was also a way of saving money "because terrorists" and pretty much removed all litter bins, even those where the risk was almost non-existent. Now that said risk is more or less gone, no one seems interested in putting them back.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about...?

    replacing your council vehicles (That belch lots of diesel fumes) with Electric ones? You are going to have to do it sooner or later so why not start with those Refuse collection vehicles.

    Don't even get me started about all their vehicles left idling in supermarket car parks first thing in the morning...

    I'm posting AC as I actually would like to get my bins emptied again before Next Christmas.

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Alert

      Re: How about...?

      How far can an electric bin lorry travel on one charge?

      How much of the bin lorry would be space for batteries and how much would be space for rubbish?

      How safe will the batteries be in a vehicle that has bin collectors throwing bags of rubbish at it?

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: How about...?

        The bin lorries are powered from an onboard generator, fuelled by the combustion of waste.

        Put an AI on board, give it a "survival instinct", it can navigate the most efficient routes and find the richest sources of fuel from the network of sensors in all the bins ... big pair of mechanical claws so it can grab the waste bags and feed itself.

        What could possibly go wrong?

        1. Richard 12 Silver badge
          Terminator

          Re: How about...?

          I'm sure it'll work wonderfully

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Happy

        Re: How about...?

        How far can an electric bin lorry travel on one charge?

        How much of the bin lorry would be space for batteries and how much would be space for rubbish?

        How safe will the batteries be in a vehicle that has bin collectors throwing bags of rubbish at it?

        Until about forty years ago, there was a thing called a "milk float" driven by a "milkman" who stopped at every house to deliver full bottles of milk and collect empty ones for refilling. In retrospect it was very environmentally friendly, but the market was eventually killed off by people having cars to drive to supermarkets to fill up on cheap disposable plastic containers of milk.

        Milk floats were invariably electric - lead acid batteries in those days - and had the same sort of journey profile as a bin lorry. Very frequent start/stops, which electric motors are good at - diesel either constantly starts/stops or continuously idles - either way an efficient pollution generator. Milk floats usually travelled at roughly walking speed, just like a bin lorry. Although the vehicles were fairly small, I expect the load was disproportionally large as milk is very dense at about a ton per cubic metre.

        1. katrinab Silver badge

          Re: How about...?

          The milk round was maybe 2 or 3 hours per day, whereas bin lorries will work for about 10 hours per day.

          Anyway, milk now comes in a Tesco / Ocado / etc van, and they are mostly diesel.

          1. swampdog
            Joke

            Re: How about...?

            Just have 'em start at the top of a hill. In the case where there is no hill simply dump all the rubbish in one place. There soon will be one.

            [viz icon]?

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: How about...?

          "Milk floats usually travelled at roughly walking speed, just like a bin lorry."

          When they're actually collecting, yes. But to and from the depot is another matter.

        3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: How about...?

          "Milk floats were invariably electric - lead acid batteries in those days - and had the same sort of journey profile as a bin lorry. "

          And those milk floats, even with "inefficient" lead acid batteries, needed their lights on most of the time since they tended to start deliveries at stupid'o'clock in the morning. Bin lorries don't seem to start until daylight these days.

      3. Francis Boyle Silver badge
  11. Roger Greenwood

    Sensors will be fun

    I wonder how they are going to measure the fullness of a bin. Weight? Ultrasonic level? Light beam? Either way I expect tinkering and hacking if not outright theft of devices assuming these are to be retrofitted to existing bin fleets - how much will homeowners be charged in future when their bin grows legs and walks away? (used to be £25 each around here).

    It is also going to make "bin day" a bit of a lottery - not all bins are near the road and need to be dragged thorugh gardens and ginnels. Perhaps this is only for businesses and city centres?

    I hope I see a follow up article just over the horizon.

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Alert

      Re: Sensors will be fun

      They will use blockchains. And AI. And clouds.

      What could possibly go wrong?

      1. Roger Greenwood
        Thumb Up

        Re: Sensors will be fun

        Of course, that's exactly what they'll do. If all else fails they can send in the drone.

        1. katrinab Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: Sensors will be fun

          Drones don't work in cloudy conditions

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: Drones don't work in cloudy conditions

            That's Sheffield fucked then. Hang on, hang on... how did they get all those HD aerial shots for Doctor Who then? Was that all CGI? Or helicopters?

      2. Tom 35

        Re: Sensors will be fun

        A hammer if people think they are going to be used to charge them more money.

  12. Vaughtex

    City On the Move

    Sheffield Council still think it's 1972 and we're still a "City on the Move" to quote the advert of the time intended to show how modern we were.

    Meanwhile the likes of Leeds and Manchester councils actually did something about their cities and left us behind. The place won't improve until there's people running it who actually have a clue.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: City On the Move

      The important part is to blame the government, and then any member of the peoples front of Judea in the local council

      Sheffield is the perfect example of why you shouldn't let politicians run things

    2. JetSetJim

      Re: City On the Move

      > Meanwhile the likes of Leeds and Manchester councils actually did something about their cities and left us behind

      IMHO, the IRA did a lot for Manchester city centre back in 1996

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: City On the Move

        Even the Germans couldn't be persuaded to bomb Sheffield.

        They did bomb attercliffe for 5years causing thousands of pounds of improvements

        1. JetSetJim

          Re: City On the Move

          That area by the arndale centre was horrid and the redevelopment after the bomb made it a much nicer area

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: City On the Move

            Remember in the 60s and 70s we expected a global nuclear war at any time. So a lot of the architecture was built assuming it would be dealt with before anyone got too unhappy

            1. JetSetJim
              Childcatcher

              Re: City On the Move

              > Remember in the 60s and 70s

              Sorry, I'm just a whippersnapper. Was at uni in manc when the bomb went off

  13. EvilDrSmith Silver badge

    Something seems wonky in that sentence

    "Reducing air pollution is another goal as Sheffield City Council has struggled to cut CO2 levels to meet EU Air Quality limits."

    I was under the impression that Air quality limits are mostly to do with particulates and Sulphur dioxide / nitrogen dioxide, and that there was no reference to CO2.

    A quick check here:

    https://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/standards.htm

    seems to confirm that CO2 is not part of the EU air quality suite.

    Anyone of you fine people have any reliable up-to-date listing that shows otherwise?

    Or is Sheffield City Council making things up?

    Or is this dodgy reporting from El reg?

    (This is not to say that reducing CO2 output isn't worthwhile in itself)

    1. EBG

      Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

      Sheffield is very hilly. So diesel emissions are high.

    2. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

      Complete disregard for humanity...

      Is the new leader of the council called Tim Shaw?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

        >Complete disregard for humanity...

        An improvement on active hatred of humanity that Blunket's council aimed for

    3. jaywin

      Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

      It honestly wouldn't surprise me if SCC weren't trying to reduce CO2 levels to try and meet the air quality requirements without realising they're not part of the measurement.

      It certainly wouldn't be the most stupid thing they've done in recent years.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

        I remember years ago some functionary from Sheffield bragging about bagging some new industrial project that was going to bring so many more jobs into the city. Then a couple of weeks later another moaning about traffic. Total disconnect.

    4. J.G.Harston Silver badge

      Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

      I expect some editor has mis-typed CO - ie carbon *mon*oxide, which *is* a pollutant, caused by inefficient combustion. Mainly solved by increasing the temperature at which combustion occurs.

      1. quxinot

        Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

        That mostly just changes what pollutants you get, though. It's all a balance.

        1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

          Re: Something seems wonky in that sentence

          If you consider CO2 a pollutant, then yes.

          If you are emitting carbon monoxide it's because you're incompletely combusting carbon. That's how chemistry works, you can't get carbon monoxide from anything else. The only alternative is complete combustion of carbon, which results in carbon dioxide.

  14. gerryg

    Garbage in but no garbage out

    This is technology disguised as a solution. The bins still need to be emptied. Modelling past bin usage on a spreadsheet seems adequate. At a guess a street bin in the city centre is going to need emptying several times a day on a weekend slightly fewer M-F. It being in the city centre this will be a relatively cheap operation.

    A bin by a bench overlooking somewhere nice in a park or common will need emptying less often, be more expensive to empty but probably with higher amenity value. There's a policy decision to be made.

    A sensor requires all the back end palaver but doesn't empty bins and suffers from the oil-pressure-warning-light-on-the-dashboard problem.

    My local authority has a code on each lamppost with a request that concerned Joe Public report failure by SMS.

    Westminster City Council used to operate a pothole patrol with a mobile number on the side of the lorry.

    Both ideas seem to contain a germ of a solution based on emptying the bin rather than throwing technology into the rubbish.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dr Emu

    And I thought we'd been warned about the perils of intelligent bins:

    https://youtu.be/vJPj7p5PcAo

  16. JulieM Silver badge

    A fortnight?

    I put my rubbish bin out perhaps every other month, my recycling about once a month.

    1. Giles C Silver badge

      Re: A fortnight?

      Rubbish bin for me could be as little as every 3 months,

      Now recycling is full every fortnight, might have something to do with a physical paper every day and this week the box for a large window blind

  17. Buttons
    Facepalm

    Appropriate use of technology?

    No. Just No. Sod that!

  18. NanoMeter

    Other features coming in the ftuture

    Bin put out too early = "The Idiot owner of this bin put it out three days too early. Owner's name is James Smith".

    Paper bin = "The Idiot owner of this bin put plastic in the paper bin".

  19. IGotOut Silver badge

    Watering Trees?

    I have NEVER seen a tree being watered by the council and see little point in doing so.

  20. IGotOut Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Road maintenance in Shropshire.

    Easy to get potholes filled here. Just become a councilor.

    The rest can put up with wheel smashing holes, that may occasionally get repaired in a half arsed manner by a corrupt contactor, who is overseen by a lazy inspector.

    Think Boeing type quality control and certification.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Road maintenance in Shropshire.

      "Easy to get potholes filled here. Just become a councilor.

      The rest can put up with wheel smashing holes, that may occasionally get repaired in a half arsed manner by a corrupt contactor, who is overseen by a lazy inspector.

      Think Boeing type quality control and certification."

      Slight correction .... this is *not* only in shropshire !!!

      Also 'Boeing type quality control and certification' would be a massive improvement on what we get.

      I regularly travel between 2 council areas ..... one is richer than the other and seems to be able to send out contractors almost daily, the other is poor and never repairs anything ..... yet the roads are exactly the same in both areas. Namely the potholes are not fixed in either area and it is getting impossible to miss many as the roads are damaged in all lanes and dodging one simply allows you to hit another.

      I have travelled in 3rd world counties with better roads.

      Remind me of what the 'Road Tax' is for again !!!

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: Road maintenance in Shropshire.

        No such thing. Hasn't been a road tax for decades.

        Vehicle Excise Duty is an ownership tax, fiddled with every few years in an attempt to persuade the people who buy brand new cars to buy the right ones.

        1. IGotOut Silver badge
          Mushroom

          Re: Road maintenance in Shropshire.

          "Hasn't been a road tax for decades."

          This one again?

          https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax

          https://www.gov.uk/browse/driving/vehicle-tax-mot-insurance

          Tax your vehicle...

          Renew or tax your vehicle......

          Tax your car, motorcycle or other vehicle using a reference number from:......

          You must tax your vehicle even if you do not have to pay anything,.....

          Change your car’s tax class to or from ‘disabled

          DVLA vehicle tax service..mm

          Go to a Post Office that deals with vehicle tax....

          You will not need these payment details if your vehicle is exempt from tax.....

          You might also need your MOT test certificate (it must be valid when the tax starts).....

          so you might not be able to tax your vehicle immediately ......

          You do not need to tax your vehicle.

          1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

            Re: Road maintenance in Shropshire.

            The government taxes your vehicle, not the owner.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Road maintenance in Shropshire.

      Sometimes, however, there can be a little too much enthusiasm about filling things in. Away down the road there's a freshly laid patch or asphalt already peeling away. To reveal a slightly sunken manhole cover underneath.

  21. James Anderson

    Move to Spain

    Our rubbish gets collected three or four times a week.

    For this we pay about a tenth of the amount in local taxes.

    I know it’s not really your councils fault as they are only there to implement orders from Whitehall and take the resulting flack.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When Trees Need Watering.. ..In Sheffield!?!

    With Sheffield's councils recent history for felling trees en-mass I think we can drop the 's' in Trees

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reduce CO2 with some sackings...

    ...starting with whichever wally is in charge of timing the traffic lights around Sheffield at rush hour, because clearly whoever it is, has never actually tried out their creation and seen that it doesn't work, because they've made no effort to account for people going through right up until the light turns red, and even a few seconds after.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No other security software?

    I have utmost confidence in the wisdom of our council (Park Hill flats, "New" town hall, Student Games, Tram system, Amey, vast sums of ratepayers cash down a series of black holes) and Amey (fast disintegrating road "improvements", the "tree management " scam) to make the best possible decisions and deliver not just world-class outcomes but also great value for money as they always have done in the past...

  25. matt 83

    Reducing air pollution is another goal...

    as Sheffield City Council has struggled to cut CO2 levels to meet EU Air Quality limits.

    So they're going to fix CO2 emissions in Sheffield by building a coal powered factory in China to build crappy IOT devices that will need to be replaced every 6 months.

    grump

  26. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Drones

    I was under the impression that these were demonstrably more effective at tracking down laden bins?

  27. headrush

    I believe they are referring to litter bins not household dustbins.

    However, there is very little distinction between the two these days as many people fill their nearest litter bin with carrier bags full of household waste on a daily basis. Also virtually every minimarket uses the nearest litter bin to get rid of any out of date stock on a daily basis. Some days the bins are so full the bag rips trying to get it out.

    Then there are the twats who think it's a good idea to put broken, open, umbrellas in a litter bin, ripping the bag and making sure no one else can get anything in an otherwise empty bin.

    You also have the tossers who, upon finding the dog waste bin is full, either keep using the bin until its a pyramid of shit, or just drop the bags on the floor, this despite the fact there is a perfectly usable bin not 30 feet away.

    Maybe people should stop treating the World as their own private dump. Litter bins are for litter. Bits of paper, sweet wrappers, empty bottles crisp packets etc. They are not designed to cater for other waste and neither is the councils emptying policy.

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