Adelaide proposes see-though bins to tackle lazy recycling

See-through wheelie bins could be rolled out on the streets of Adelaide in a bid to catch out lazy people who don’t recycle.

Transparent bins have already been introduced in seven Perth councils, now a SA councillor wants the same thing in Adelaide.

“I think we’ve reached a point now when it comes to waste management and recycling that we need to do things differently and we need to get people to think about what they put in the bin,” Councillor Robert Sims told Today.

The idea is to hold people accountable for what rubbish they throw out and although the initiative has had success in Western Australia, South Australians have had mixed reactions to the proposal with concerns about privacy and whether the initiative will create more plastic waste.

Mr Sims said the benefit of having the see-through bins in public locations is to assist people in knowing what rubbish goes in what bins.

With Australia’s current stance on reducing plastic waste, some Today viewers took to social media and suggested that creating transparent bins using plastic would be counter-productive and to throw out all the bins currently in use would be harmful to the environment.

“Let’s look at the experience in other states and let’s see if it’s something we can draw from using transparent wheelie bins or see-through bins in public places,” Mr Sims said.

“Sometimes it is confusing for people to decide which bins to put their waste into, particularly tourists.”