Gary has come up with a clever way to ensure he never misses another bin collection day – and it’s left many impressed Facebook users wanting to follow in his footsteps
A self-professed ‘dull man’ has cracked the code to never missing a bin collection again.
Gary Smith took to the Facebook group The Dull Men’s Club to share an ingenious trick he devised years back. He described how an analogue screen linked to council data keeps him constantly informed.
Gary posted: “To answer the perennial question of ‘When is bins? ‘ especially at this time of year, I made this a couple of years ago which shows the answer on our fridge door.”
He added that “data is pulled from our local council website, extracted and then creates this, which is displayed on an e-ink display the same as you see in some supermarkets for their price tags”.
Explaining the smart set-up in more detail, Gary continued: “We have a really long driveway and can’t see the top of it to know when they’ve been emptied, so each one has a battery powered Lorawan tilt sensor on it, which reports when it moves so it’s easy to know when they’ve been emptied. The garden bin fell over in a storm and I haven’t moved it back yet before anyone asks about that.”
Not content with just keeping up with the bins, Gary’s even installed additional e-ink displays at home – one to show the countdown to his next getaway, another for the expected weather, and a third to track “another showing our solar generation” thanks to his solar panels.
Gary’s bin-collection method certainly started a stir online, with the internet split over his innovative approach to rubbish sorting. “This is the content I come to the internet for,” commented an admirer.
One group member crowned Gary a “proper binfluencer” and someone else hailed him “binspirational.” A fourth person exclaimed: “Take my money now.”
Another expressed their approval, “Very cool!”, followed by another supporter who gushed: “That is actually pretty cool. I’d love to do something like this.” More praise came from an individual who wanted to make their own gadget, adding: “I’ll need a how to. This is super cool,”.
However, not everyone was captivated by Gary’s technique. One critic likened it to “Almost as dull as the fellow who colour coded the light in his garage to correspond to each bin day”.
Meanwhile, another sarcastically recommended his display with a “Properly dull. 10/10 recommend.” And a third spoil sport added: “Okay but our council sends notifications”.
