New bin credit system in Kerry

THE days of attaching tags to waste bins in Kerry will soon be gone.

Instead, a new, high-tech system will eliminate the need for lift tags and customers will be able to purchase ‘bin credit’ by means of a charge card at Kerry County Council Offices and designated shops.

The council claims to be the first waste collection authority to introduce an electronic payment system which comes into operation on February 5.

Under the system, all a customer needs to do is take their card to council offices, or a participating retailer, and purchase ‘bin credit’ in the same way they can purchase mobile phone credit.

Heaphy’s Shop, in Ballylongford, is the first in Kerry to install the system.

Noel Heaphy said: “It is very easy to use, both for staff and for members of the public, and from a retailer’s point of view it will eliminate the need to retain and control stock.”

The system has been developed using a combination of technologies from the ePayments company, Alphyra, and AMCS, a Limerick-based automated refuse solution provider.

Whenever a bin is collected, an electronic chip in the bin is read by a computer on the bin truck.

If there is sufficient credit on the bin account, the bin is emptied and the cost of lifting the bin is then deducted from the account. If the customer has insufficient credit in their account, then the bin will not be emptied.

Council head of finance John O’Connor said that implementing the project had been a major task for the council, with a number of stakeholders involved, internally and externally.