The intelligent garbage can

DASA has developed a system for more justified garbage fees that uses a microchip attached to the garbage can.

Since the department "sensor systems" of DASA in Ulm has first introduced its "intelligent garbage can" in larger numbers, the new concept for more justified garbage fees has caused a sensation: By the end of 1994 about 200 000 garbage cans in Germany were equipped with DASA's microchips. The "individual garbage measurement system" (IGMS) satisfies a long-standing desire of numerous communities: Apart from a basic charge a citizen only has to pay for the garbage he/she has actually produced (him-/herself).

This is done by a microchip on the side of each garbage can - a so-called tag - which contains the personal code of the owner. When the (dustbin(AE)|garbage can (BE)) is emptied the chip (transmits|submits) its data to a data acquisition unit on the side of the garbage vehicle - notably contactlessly via radio transmission.

This has the advantage that the tag's electronics can be fitted in an insulated plastic casing so that it is free of maintenance and protected against (bumps|hits|impacts), water or dust, as well.

(The data stored in the microchip can't be falsified.|The storage of the data in the microchip is false-proof.) Batteries don't have to be changed, either, because the tag is supplied with power from the electromagnetic field of the garbage vehicle's antenna. At the end of each tour the data collected while emptying the garbage bins is transmitted to the accounting office which sends out the fee notifications later on.

In the future communities can charge fees even more justly if they equip their garbage vehicles with (weighing facilities|scales).

Then it is no longer the number of emptied bins but the weight of the produced waste that counts.

After the first two years the communities involved make up an altogether positive (summary|conclusion|résumé): The acceptance among the citizens is high, mishaps and failures are rare.