Every week, about 740,000 people in 288,000 residential households* in Oxfordshire alone have to put their bins out for collection. This may not be a major hassle for some. Although this can be annoying, others have to move their bins quite far, especially if they live on a private road, have uneven ground up to the sidewalk, or have limited mobility. Although paid carers or neighbours, loved ones and most councils can help in such conditions, this is far from an ideal or permanent solution, being relatively high priced for individuals and the government.

One approach to fix this issue would be using robots and technology, which would come at high prices for the affected population and council or government. An estimate for fully automatic trash cans like the Rezzi SmartCan is in the high hundreds per unit – a cost of over £100,000,000 spread across 288,000 residential households in Oxfordshire.

Although this type of bin collection will likely never be rolled out to everyone in the foreseeable future, it would still be expensive to the council and government, even if only enrolled to the necessary households. There aren’t any other usable options that can be considered on a large scale and aren’t on a similar cost level.

A local living on a private road comments the following: “I am looking forward to the day when bin collection is fully automated”. “In the meantime, I will have to bring them out myself, something that can be difficult during working weeks”, he adds.

As seen above, this topic can cause major disruptions to some people’s routine, however, it isn’t something that can be easily addressed by technology or automation and will likely still require human help from councils and government to help those with limited mobility and a long walk out to the main road.

*: according to ONS Mid-Year Estimates 2022 and the 2021 census, respectively