Remember this? I have received a response from the director of Kyron, the company which manufactures the Big Belly. He has asked me to publish it and I am happy to do so. Feel free to comment.
Hi,
I read your recent blog about our Big belly unit on trial in Inverness. I would like to add a comment as it was a very thought provoking article (thank you for raising awareness of our compactors) and there were some very interesting comments by your readers.
Id like to respond to some of the issues and opinions raised. Apologies for the bullet point nature of my comments.
1. Yes even in Inverness the solar panels will work all year round. Solar technology has vastly improved over the past few years and continues to do so.
2. Oh ye of little faith in your community! Regarding vandalism, this culture is the exact same throughout Ireland and the UK and we have only lost one unit out of hundreds installed. The product is manufactured in the USA from the same materials used on the Ice Hockey rinks, the polycarbonate top, over the solar panel, has never been pierced and you would need a sledgehammer to crack it.
3. The retail cost of the compactor is £3500 not £3200. Councils can acquire the units without using any capital funds. They pay for the units on a monthly basis DIRECTLY from the savings and efficiencies each units generates. Even if a council was using capital funds to buy the bins, the payback is only 12-18 months and the lifespan of the bins is 7.5 years.
4. How savings are generated? – If a council is emptying a street bin twice a day, it will only need to empty a Big belly once a week. This saves massive hours of operatives workload that can be re-deployed into other more critical areas. This reduction in collections saves Councils a fortune in vehicle fuel, maintenance and carbon costs. One of our councils has reduced their truck time from 21 hours per day to 10 hours per day.
5. The big Belly eliminates weekend collections – savings huge overtime expense and vehicle costs
6. The Big Belly eliminates overflowing bins which reduces street cleaning requirements.
7. Because of its enclosed nature, the Big belly eliminates problems associated with birds and vermin scattering rubbish across streets, car parks , parks and beaches saving another small fortune in litter picking costs.
8. The Big belly is bolted to the ground for health & safety and anti theft purposes. We have never had a unit robbed across 18 countries worldwide.
9. The bin is emptied by opening the door and lifting the back of rubbish out of the bin. The rubbish isn’t compacted into a brick type format and the average weight of the full bin is 9-11 kilos adhering to all health and safety regulations.
10. The Big Belly sends an email when the bin is 85% full. A website the council uses provides full mapping, litter volume, efficiency data and sends automated fill alerts to relevant council crews. This saves councils a fortune by eliminating the current process of “milk run” type truck and crew rounds emptying empty bins etc.
I hope this clarifies everything and thank you again for highlighting the trial in Inverness. I have followed you on twitter from our @bigbellysolaruk account and our website iswww.bigbellysolar.co.uk. I would really appreciate it if you could publish my response and I trust you with same.
If you need anything further please contact me at any of the detail below.
Regards,
Don
Don Coughlan
Director
Kyron UK Limited
Posts
10 comments:
Don, I'm afraid you didn't answer one of the queries raised which horrified me.
What if a small animal-or even a baby- was put inside your machine?
Not commented or posted for a while Rosa, you ken the wee mischievious reasons:¬)
Conan. Do you not think that if someone was cruel enough to put a baby or small animal into a crusher then they would be just as likely to find some other method of killing them ? Maybe we should ban cars in case someone throws a baby or small animal in front of one ? Or drain the rivers and lakes which could be used to drown the baby. Or ban knives which can stab. Ban buildings over 3 feet high as any higher then a baby could be dropped off it and seriously injured.
Opportunity RM.
I got my shotgun licence when I was seventeen, and have never killed a kitten or a baby.
How many stories have you heard about microwaved pets?
I'm not advocating a ban on microwaves or shotguns, merely asking Don if there are any safeguards in place should a pished up chav think it a laugh to sling Grannie's pet Yorkie in the bin *knowing* that there is a crusher in there...
Firstly, can I thank you Mr Coughlan for taking the time to read the original posts, and for replying to Subrosa has you have. Your comments are appreciated.
If I may be allowed to return to my original post and expand a little upon my comments, I hope it may help Kyron UK Limited understand the thinking of a ‘local’ resident.
1. I should make it clear that my comments, thoughts and criticisms are directed, not at Kyron UK but more at my local authority, the Highland Council.
2. There is already a litter bin outside this particular fast food retailer, but it is under-utilised. Rubbish continues to be carelessly strewn across the High Street. A new rubbish bin, whether it be it solar panelled or gold plated will not change the antisocial attitude of many of the food retailers customers.
3. I would argue that as Macdonalds are part of the problem they should be part of the solution. If Kyron UK wish to sell their bins to Macdonalds, then good and well. It should not be left to Highland Council to clear up the aftermath of this retailers operation. I would go so far as to say that if any food retailer does not make every effort to control the rubbish generated by its operation then it should have its licence to be a food retailer withdrawn.
4. I wish the four week trial well, and will be following its progress.
5. However – the frightening part of all this is that Highland Council are actually considering purchasing 50 of these bins. At £3500 each that makes a total of £175,000. At a time when Highland Council, which is my council, spending my money, is cutting services, pruning budgets and reducing staffing levels – if they have a spare £175,000 kicking around, then there are much more urgent items needing attention – so I’m sorry - but solar powered bins are not high on the list of urgent priorities.
6. And believe me, I will be letting my councillor know my thoughts.
A superb response from a marketing-savvy individual, (Yup, that's a compliment), with faith in his company's products.
If only all the subjects of observational/"sceptical"/critical Blog-postings would respond so positively.
[Methinks politicians would then have little spare-time left.]
I do hope I come under 'observational' Jo with perhaps a little cynicism sprinkled around. In fact I'm with JRB on this one and will do exactly the same if my council spends money in this manner.
Conan said.
" asking Don if there are any safeguards in place should a pished up chav think it a laugh to sling Grannie's pet Yorkie in the bin"
Don might direct you to KSOD. The 'Kyron Special Opertations Department'
They will explain all about the secret camera that records all approaches to the bin. On spotting a suspicious chav ( burberry cap on top of a spotty oiks head etc) it will switch to killer mode. Firing a bolt at the speed of sound straight into the chavs head. A large door then opens and the chav is grabbed and pulled inside to be crushed by a turbo powered boost to the crusher. Any baby or small animal is released unharmed by a small cushioned side door and gently rolled out onto an emergency blanket. An automatic DNA sample is then taken to confirm the identity of the squashed Chav and an e mail is automatically sent to cancel the gyro and script.
THAT's what I was hoping for RM :¬)
Conan
Thank you for asking that question. I read the response all the way through looking for an answer to the "What if some sick creature puts an animal or a person in there?." question. Hopefully the author will read us again and come back on it.
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