Amsterdam's city planners have devised a clever system for dealing with household garbage. Just a handful of neighborhoods use the traditional system, whereby trash is left in an outdoor bin to be picked up once a week; most neighborhoods, in contrast, have a system of sidewalk bins that feed into underground containers, and residents can dispose of their trash and recyclables (after sorting them, of course) in a piecemeal fashion.

Depending on the neighborhood, some of these sidewalk trash bins have RFID readers. Residents are given free RFID cards that they use to touchlessly unlock the bins, allowing them to deposit trash. In other neighborhoods, no RFID cards are required.

Here's an example of what one of the bins looks like in action, as captured by the Not Just Bikes YouTube channel:

The garbage bin is periodically hoisted out of the sidewalk by garbage trucks with crane arms, that then empty the containers:

Keeping the garbage stored underground prevents vermin from getting into them; as wily as raccoons are, they're not good with using underground drilling equipment.

It's also a better system, I think, to carry one small bag of trash out whenever you leave the house, as opposed to letting a large bag full of trash fester for a week, then hauling that to the curb.

Here's NJB's explanation and demonstration of how the system works:

You don't think racoons are wily enough to steal an RFID card? Hah!! Where we live (Canada) we're lucky to have both recycling and municipal composting. Combined with careful shopping we throw out maybe 3-4 small bags of garbage/year. We're always trying for less. Mike.

Hi Rain this is a nationwide system we have all over the Netherlands and is in most municipalities only used for what we call "restafval" so called hard to recycle stuff and separate ones for glass. It indeed works great and is always a spectacular sight when one is emptied. Most households in the Netherlands have small roller containers (stored in your backyard) for green, plastic and cardboard waste. Roll them to the street in the evening and picked up early in the morning, that is the main system.

Whenever I see these trucks pass by I imagine what it would be like for the guys driving it and operating the arm to explain their jobs on parties. Instead of a "garbage man", your a Robot Arm Operator! :D  It doesn't get much better than that :D

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.

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