These are the new smart trash cans post-COVID. Have you tried them yet?

If you've been strolling around the Spanish capital these days, you've surely come across some of its new trash cans. Their design meets two key goals that the city hall wants to pursue in the post-COVID era: sustainability and digital transformation. Hence, the new trash cans operate on solar energy and, through a compression system, can transform their 120-liter capacity into 500 or 600. In other words, they store five times more than a conventional trash can.

That solar energy is what powers the compression and enables connection to an application that indicates to technicians the fill level. What's the goal? To prevent overflow of waste while reducing the frequency of emptying. Additionally, their technology allows for locking them so that no objects can be inserted when security forces order it.

In terms of post-COVID measures, the trash cans open with a foot pedal, and their internal container has wheels for mechanized unloading. They also feature metal plates for extinguishing cigarette butts, an ashtray, GPS-assisted location service, security system, and remote locking.

Over the next four years (with an investment of 20 million euros), all old trash cans will be replaced by these smart ones. By next October, 1,300 of them will be installed in the 21 districts of the city. Amsterdam, Dublin, Prague, and Vienna already have this Bigbelly HC5 model of trash cans. You can also find them in other American cities, like Indio, California, where they are even customized: