Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The science of rubbish collection

The modern vehicles which are now used to empty our black wheelie bins are even more clever than I knew.

I got the opportunity to see them at work close up while I was standing at the bus stop this morning,

The hoist operates on some sort of weight sensor – the binmen have only to push the bins on to the bit at the bottom which looks like short prongs of a forklift truck & up they go, over & tip.

But as the process of lowering them back to the ground begins, the machine senses if a bin is not completely empty, tips it again & gives it a good shake until it is. All untouched by human hand.

All that thought & ingenuity put into coping with stuff for which we carelessly have no use for any more.