London recycling bins to get electronic displays
February 18, 2013 at 3:01 pm
Recycling just got a whole lot more interesting in London. Electronic displays have started popping up on 100 newspaper recycling bins across the City of London, making good use of a prime bit of real estate. It is thought that the displays will be used to show adverts, news and a whole range of other information to people in the area.
The bins and displays have been provided by Renew, which has a 21-year contract for the bins. Kaveh Memari is the chief executive, and he said that the displays will be used to display news, information about the Tube and transport in the city, advertisements and more.
The news will be provided by journalists, and publications including Time Out and The Economist will also be providing content. Emergency messages are also likely to be placed on the bins when necessary. So now if you are in the area you won’t even need to take out your smartphone to get access to the latest information.
The bins were originally erected because too many free newspapers were being discarded in the city. It was originally hoped that the screens would be up and working in time for the Olympics, but they had to be pushed back.
The main question people are probably asking is how the bins make any money. The answer is in the form of advertising, sponsorship and collaboration with publishers. Memari even claims that the company is in talks with various film studios which he hopes will take advantage of the viral marketing possibilities that the bins provide.
