Are You Ready to Face Your Waste? Perth Council Is Trialling Transparent Bins

Would you consume differently if you had to face your trash every day?

Garbage bins and their liners generally come in a variety of colours and sizes. One style they don't often come in is transparent because there are very few people in the world (basically, nobody) who want to see a mixture of all the gross things we discard every day.

But, maybe, that's what we need to make us reconsider what and how many things we are chucking out, never to be seen again? Well, that's exactly what one council in Perth has decided to try out.

Mindarie Regional Council (MRC) in Western Australia is trialling the concept with 20 transparent bins around participating houses.

The chief executive of the MRC, Gunther Hoppe, told ABC Radio Perth that the concept is about getting people to realise how much they are sending off to landfills.

"What we want people thinking about is how you go about reducing the amount of waste you produce," Hoppe said.

"The [WA] State Government has set a target that by 2020, they want 65 per cent of the material that we generate in our household to be diverted away from landfill... Currently, we are at about 50 per cent."

But not everyone is convinced about the idea. Some have argued that since the bins are put out in the street for collection, privacy will be limited due to everyone seeing what you're disposing of.

Others pointed out that it wouldn't take long for the bins to become dirty and therefore, redundant.

But if the initiative will make us think about waste more seriously, would it really be such a bad idea?

The trial will be run over the next eight weeks.

Photo: iStock.com/Ratana21