There are an estimated 1,300 “illegal” waste containers in circulation in Aa and Hunzi municipality. That's why it's time to act, and the municipality is equipping all green, orange and gray containers with the chip. The municipality will check whether it is indeed allowed to place containers along the street there.
“There are bins that are emptied multiple times, and there are bins that are in use for which the waste fee is not paid,” says Councilor Richard Hilling. The slide must provide a degree of fairness.
In 2022, it was announced that unloading the wrong containers costs the municipality about 62 thousand euros every year. “Community members can request a second (free) container when they have children in diapers. But this container must also be collected again when that is no longer an option,” explains Helling. This is the point where things often go wrong.
There are also people who purchase an additional container via Marktplaats, and residents of surrounding municipalities also sometimes secretly empty their waste container across the municipal border. That will be a thing of the past with this chip.
The slide is recorded when the garbage truck lifts the container. “The system then determines whether that container has been emptied before, and whether it is a container from our municipality,” Helling explains. This way no containers will be lost and management can be performed better.
The chip does not record the quantity and type of waste. “The number of kilograms is not recorded,” says Hilling. “We try to reduce the flow of waste as much as possible, but the notebook is not part of that.”
The municipality is expected to spend another six weeks cutting up the containers. The new waste system will go into effect on January 1, 2025.
