Virus spurs Japan to develop contactless garbage collection system

How about just reducing the amount of waste?

In spite of the constant announcements in supermarkets, items are frequently double or triple wrapped.

Echo more conservation measures.

to pick up waste placed in large containers at collection points

Is 'dumpster' the word you are looking for?

The closest large road the has a sidewalk large enough to accommodate a dumpster is 800m away, and I live within Tokyo . That would be a hoof.

Welcome to skynet. Technocrats Agenda is pretty clear. Covid-19 is the key crysis they are using to slowly conditioning people to think automating everything is fine due to a virus in reality its just going to replace a lot of robots with workers and self driving cars and self driving public trasnportation. This is a race for Skynet in the name of CCP virus.

Again, that money should be better spent in medicine if this virus is really a threat.

I really don't think this is feasible. Most roads in my neighborhood don't have any space to put big Dumpsters. BTW, the garbage men who work our area are excellent. They're always on time and don't leave any errant garbage lying on the ground.

The govt should spend their money on other things. Keep jobs - not replace them. This isn't necessary and hopefully once (if) the virus is gone this idea will go out like the garbage.

Take the jobs from desperate poor old workers. Next will be driverless taxis.

about face masks. When I go to town and walk my dog, I see one discarded mask every 30 meters. Train stations every 10.

Take the jobs from desperate poor old workers.

Our 'sanitation workers' have always been young and usually fairly happy. I usually get a big hello in English as they drive by. It's usually the traffic directors who are sun baked old men.

It has already been shown that the virus last a very short time on any surface. There is no need to sanitize the kitchen, toilet, etc. after every use especially if only the family uses it. So, what is the problem? Sanitation workers always wear gloves. Issue the type of gloves that are very difficult to tear or puncture. It would be better to sanitize the steering wheel and gloves after every stop.

People leave the futons out in the sunshine everyday because it dries any sweat and sanitizes them. Why discard the paper mask after one use? Leave it in the 40 C. sunshine. It is safe to reuse.

How much money will they gobble up with meetings, consulting fees, God knows how else?...only to find the urban planning will not accomodate large bins let alone a veichal with lifting arms or has no room to reverse or use even a side lifting arm. These government ideas are only shine the light on thier stupidity, incompetence and greed.

Not only is this impractical in most residential areas of Japan, but using covid as a reason it's needed is just plain silly. The garbage collectors already wears gloves and masks, and, the tainted masks are inside plastic garbage bags. Chance of transmitting covid.... zero.

Get wheely bins! Forces people to only throw out a certain amount because in Japan you just dump your rubbish out (as much as you want) and cover it with a net in an attempt to stop the crows (it doesn't work)

Take the jobs from desperate poor old workers.

In my area collection is mostly done by 2 people (sometimes 3) : one drive the truck the other(s) put the trash bag in it. With a container system, it is the same : one drive the truck, the other(s) put the container(s) on the fork then back in their area. With dumpster, I do not know.

So if they go for container no job should be loss but most likely better for the body of user (no need to go down ...), less problem with bird (thought rat would pose a new one), easier to find spot to put these. Problem. as for dumpster is that as of now if it is not the right trash day, the trash is not taken, with container\dumpster they will not be able to check.

It has already been shown that the virus last a very short time on any surface.

Actually 72hrs depends on material.

Thats why a completely empty cruise liner if left for 2 weeks is perfectly safe.

The crows are a bigger health threat!

Ripping open the burnable bags left out for the bin men.

Japan can't even put out the trash without the crafty crows ripping open the bags open and pillaging the leftover food scraps...plastic flying everywhere..bits of old tissue and all kinds of nasty rubbish spread out all over the street!

Try using less plastic wrappings the food is wrapped in several layers of plastic especially convenience store food.

Wheely bins in Japan? It would work OK for me, as I'm not in a flat.

But those things can really stink in countries much more temperate than Japan. Can you imagine how many old people will have accidents cleaning them? And the passive aggression - or more - against those whose bins are a bit... aromatic?

This a great idea and needs to happen asap. In my part of Tokyo we have to leave our rubbish bags out on the pavement under a net. They attract rats and birds frequently break into the bags searching for food. A metal container would stop all of that.

In Japan helping environment is behind of European counties.

It’s like that a charge for plastic bags at shops has just took effect in July.

This is going to be a small step

I wish fighting against virus could trigger to develop unconventional original accurate system for environment.

I would absolutely love it if I could just set some bins out in front of the house, and have them pick it up like back in the US. (My son in the UK says it's normal procedure there, as well.) It's one of the things I miss the most in Japan. My community's streets could easily handle it.

@garypen

Have you ever tried? I do exactly that and it gets collected without fail. My area has the usual collection points with the mesh, but I just put my own bin out front of my place and viola, garbage gone.

Single operator side loading garbage trucks that can grasp and dump large plastic barrels have been around for an awful long time. Decades. They are ubiquitous around the world. We have two, one for trash and one for recyclables (plastic, paper, metals). In Los Angeles we had three with the third being for yard waste. You could order a fourth for animal waste. That was for owners who kept horses or other such animals. Each went into a different truck for a different destination. We have to wheel them out to the street for trash days and wheel them back in the evening. Large buildings have dumpsters often served by chutes that open to hallways in the building at each floor. Those use a different front loading trash truck but again, it's a single operator situation. The drive often has to unlock a gate and pull the dumpster out of it's notch in the building so the truck can lift it over the cab and dump it into the bin behind but this has been around longer than the side loading trucks. I am honestly surprised Japan doesn't do this now.

Not in Japan, but we have trucks that can grab a thick-hard-rubber bin, lift it and dump the contents into the compactor part of the truck, then put the rubber-bin back where it was grabbed. I've seen trucks of all sizes with these robotic arms. Some on the side, some on the front. They have a camera and joystick to line up the bin location, then press a button and let it go for about 15 seconds. A little visual recognition of the bins and the joystick could be removed.

A big truck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w--FoZXgn04

But sometimes there are "issues": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8hRQtG6SI with a solution provided automatically.

In Iwata, Shizuoka, a person has to purchase a garbage bag, put his/her name and address on it, then put it under the tarp. ONE BAG per week, unless the city ordinance is disobeyed. Ironically, the garbage man just throws the bags in the back end of the truck. There is no recording, but older people still follow the rule and are afraid.

When I was in college our campus had these little robot Daihatsu trash trucks come up to a garbage can, pick it up and pour the trash into it's rear end and then go on its way. I've seen them in action. Surely we can utilize the AI for bigger vehicles picking up more trash. Safer and cleaner.

No Need for R & D or any developing work, just take a look at how the gabage is collected in Germany, England, Belgium, and many more, No contact, all mechanical. and save the tax payers money for a change.