London streets are presently dotted with huge black bins that have screens fitted on to their bodies – they might just seem to be technically advanced rubbish bins, but do not ‘rubbish’ them off so casually. These ‘green’ high-tech rubbish bins that have been operating since a year are indeed responsible for recycling more than 100 tons of waste that has been generated in London City. These unique bins are termed ‘techno pods’ and have been innovated by Renew Solutions.
From featuring state of the art LED screens that keeps the pedestrians briefed with a variety of updates ranging from the tube delays to what’s happening in the financial market. However, the most crucial function of these Techno Pods is that they provide an ultimate solution for recycling the daily newspapers that are distributed in the city for free- by recycling it.
Till date there are around 100 Techno green Pods deployed in London by Renew and now the bins recycle all sorts of paper waste. While these bins are responsible for collecting the potential paper waste of London, however the local authorities invariably pay for the removal of the waste from the Techno Pods. These unique green garbage bins was a project that was undertaken by London as the city was not complying to the recycling quota as prescribed by the Bureau of International Recycling.
The bins are sustainable and eco-friendly as the screens makes use of the power saving technology called ‘adaptive brightness’ in which the power consumption is only 40%. The LED screens use power that is approximately 210 watts per day, and that too, when functioning with bright screens. However the LEDs are closed down at night. Earlier, the Techno Pods were completely powered by renewable energy now operates on a mixed energy source.
A lot of the news content that is streamed through the Techno Pods is sponsored or has investors backing it. At present Renew has received sponsorships from Wallpaper, Qatari Islamic Bank and CNBC, however, in order to expand the number of pods, the company is looking for more sponsors, as the Qatari Investment Bureau had significantly lent out financial aid when the first lot of Techno Pods were being rolled out for installation.
At present, Renew would like to deploy these pods at railway terminals and airports by giving the Techno Pods other feature- wifi facilities. This model is presently being tested in various other financial districts in the world, such as Singapore and Lower Manhattan (USA).
So watch out, you might just see Techno Pods being common sights in various financial cities that would offer multiple advantages, apart from recycling.
