RECENTLY Stirling Council was persuaded, no doubt by human consultants, to purchase 90 "smart-bins" at a cost of £3,400 each to help manage Stirling’s share of Scotland’s layer of litter. To justify the exorbitant price tag, each bin is fitted with an eye-catching array of green, amber and red lights. The theory is that once the bin is full a signal will rouse an operative back at HQ and alert them to the requirement for a human to go and collect the full bag and replace it with an empty one. “This will save time and money” reads the official propaganda. Reality is rather different.
On Monday, April 16, when on my early morning walk for The Herald, the red light on the newly-installed Beechwood Park bin was flashing urgently and continued to do so until Sunday, April 22, when it was finally emptied.
I am willing to admit that I have now changed my mind about this new service. If that bin was deliberately ignored by humans when pleading to be unburdened on five weekdays – the human would rightly only be entitled to his hourly rate of pay – and only lifted on a day when time and a half or double time rates applied, that is indeed a smart bin.
It is long past time when council-tax payers should unite and cry out in unison that enough is enough. Thirty-two gangs of incompetents is too many for a five million population to endure. The robots are only highlighting the human flaws in these organisations.
Duncan Graham,
34 Randolph Road, Stirling.
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