Thought of this the other day; instead of sending a large truck past every house in the country which then use a mechanical arm to lift half-empty recycling wheelie bins (it's the emptiness of the bins being put out that really kills any scheme like this), why not require all houses to install a home trash compactor? Then have a smaller general waste truck come around and pick everything up in the one pass, and take the load straight to landfill.
This would offer several savings; the first being it takes the large recycling trucks off the road. And the smaller rubbish truck is cheaper to run. That's because the waste stream is an issue of volume not weight. Then when at the transfer station, the waste brought in is already compacted and requires less compacting for final transfer to landfill.
Alternatively, do not send the rubbish truck past each house at all. Set up collection points and accept trash compacted at home first. Each day a very small truck then clears this collection point. This is a kind of surge pile and far more efficient.
What my idea does is save on the amount of energy being used disposing of waste. The flash recycling schemes and their wheelie bins are not energy efficient at all, they're damaging to the environment and expensive for ratepayers.
Now before someone says, 'Hang on, how do you get trash compactors in every home?' What could be done is require all home construction obtaining a building consent, to install a trash compactor as a condition of that consent. This would cover all houses being modified and new house construction. For the rest, take the first year's savings from running the large trucks and subsidise the installation. They'd sit in the garage, and can be free standing, you just plug the thing in at the wall.
