posted on November 20, 2003 09:01:32 AM new
Berlin to Get Trash Cans That Can Talk
By MATT DUEHOLM
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 20, 2003; 10:02 AM
BERLIN -
Fed up with garbage-strewn streets? Berlin thinks it has found a solution - trash cans that say thank you.
Starting next spring, the German capital's trash service will build electronics into a handful of the city's 20,000 street-side wastebaskets that will allow them to speak or sing to the public, a spokesman said Thursday.
"We want to encourage people in a nice, funny way to throw their trash in the baskets and not on the street," said the official, Bernd Mueller. The talking trash cans - powered by solar cells - are meant to show that Berlin is "a modern city with high-tech services, and that it is also very cosmopolitan," he added.
Making Berlin's visitors feel at home, some of the baskets will be programmed to say "Thank you" or "Merci" instead of "Danke," Mueller said.
Still, the garbage cans will be silent after dark.
"Some people might feel uncomfortable if these things said something to them at night," Mueller said.
posted on November 20, 2003 10:23:35 AM new
How funny, Linda. Sounds like an idea that might work, though. I can see it being successful in my neighborhood until they all get stolen.
posted on November 20, 2003 12:24:42 PM new
Wish we could have them here. Some people are such pigs. Throwing trash on the sidewalk; tossing garbage, cigarette butts, etc. out of their car windows, etc. Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
