Solar powered smart bins arrive in Rotherham at cost of £52,000

From left: The Works manager Gareth Masters, cabinet member Cllr Sarah Allen with Rotherham Council colleagues Graham Fields and Christopher Wells, and student Denver Milnes, with one of the new Bigbelly bins

The waste containers use solar power to compact the rubbish, meaning they can take up to eight times as much as regular bins.

They even send a message to street cleaning teams when they need emptying.

Thirteen have been placed in the town centre, with two others at Parkgate and Wath, as part of an eight-week trial by Rotherham Borough Council.

Cllr Sarah Allen, cabinet member for cleaner, greener communities, said: “Bigbelly bins are a fantastic invention that will help us reduce waste at the busiest locations in the town, ensuring we have cleaner public spaces.

“This is part of our ongoing improvements to waste services and to encouraging recycling.”

Gareth Masters, who manages The Works on Effingham Street, said: “Rotherham is a lovely town centre and it’s great to see it being looked after in this way.”

Student Denver Milnes, who attends Thomas Rotherham College added: “I love them. “They’re so bright and they’re generating a lot of interest around town.”

The council admitted last summer that 15 per cent of the borough’s 1,880 public bins needed replacing.