More than three million plastic bottles, or over 253,000 kilograms of plastics were collected in just five months through theiBiN scheme.

The ‘intelligent bins’ are rubbish skips that gauge the volume of waste disposed and have doubled the collection of plastic waste, according to GreenPak.

Earlier this year, iBiNs replaced all previous recycling skips in the 40 localities served by GreenPak.

The latest figures show that between January and May plastics recovery nearly doubled when compared to the same period in 2018. GreenPak said it also registered another highly significant increase of 39% in recovered paper and glass materials.

From over 651,000 kilograms last year, the total figure for both paper and glass over the past five months increased to more than 882,000 kilograms, GreenPak added.

The iBiNs measure their fill-level and transmit the information to a central system using Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology provided by Vodafone Malta.

A web-based application also guides people to the nearest iBiN.

“Using our latest technological system, today we know that in 2019 there has not been a single day when citizens did not use GreenPak’s iBiNs to recycle,” CEO Mario Schembri said.

“iBiNs are positively impacting on recycling in both Malta and Gozo as they are making it easier and more efficient for people to recycle, anytime, anywhere,” he added.

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