The Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) has installed twelve solar-powered compacting bins in the Port of Palma as part of a technological innovation pilot scheme designed to make waste management more efficient. The bins allow for separate collection of light packaging, municipal solid waste, paper and cardboard.

The Bigbelly smart bins run on solar panels and have a built-in GPS and sensors which report in real time when they are full. This makes it easier for the cleaning crew to collect them. The bins are also fitted with a waste compactor which has a capacity eight times greater than a traditional bin, storing between 600 and 800 litres of waste.

One of the added values and reasons why APB has decided to install this new system is using clean energy. The smart bins are exclusively solar powered and with only eight hours of daylight they can run at full capacity for a month.

The twelve bins have been placed along the Palma seafront promenade by Future Street España based on pedestrian flows and bearing in mind that these bins are the ones most commonly used by the general public. This means the results can be evaluated in potentially strategic locations. The initiative is to last six months and has a cost of €5,000.

The APB is continuing to move forward in improving the cleanliness of its ports following sustainability principles and using environmental initiatives which have already been rolled out in other cities such as Dublin, Berlin, New York, Dubai, London, Paris and Madrid.