A rubbish bin that makes you look twice. As you throw away your old newspaper, you can read the new headlines. London based firm Renew has invented these unique recycling points. Its bomb-proof containers have LCD screens on each side which show breaking news and financial data. Kaveh Memari is Renew's CEO.
--It's made out of fibre glass, which is the same thing that your surfboard is made from. But underneath is very toughened material, so there is toughened glass that sits at either end of it. And there is a super strong structure in the center of it, which is four times stronger than steel and that's been designed to withstand extreme pressures.
Renew has a contract to put the pods in the UK capital's financial district, an area where traditional bins are sometimes considered bomb threats and where free newspapers are handed out, increasing the need for recycling.
The Renew pods have started to appear on the streets of the city of London. And by the time the Olympic games begin in July, there will be a hundred of them in place, featuring a mix of content generated by the journalists in the newsroom and automatically generated content such as stock market prices.
Renew's editorial team select stories from the day's top news. Around a minute after being published, the headline appears on the pod.
In the mornings between six to seven, we get out our corporate news because we assume if you are on the streets between six to seven, chances are that might be something that's important for you. Then we get out the general news. By 8 o'clock, the market's open. So we start getting a flood of data coming in from the London stock exchange. By 8:39, it's more generic, it's more sports news and general news. And by the evening, it's gonna be more art and lifestyle, because we assume you've seen enough of the markets by then.
But so far, not all city workers have noticed the pods.
--All I could see really was something to advertise, didn't appreciate it even it was recycling.
--If people around here gonna use it, it's a great idea. I haven't stopped to look at this, but I've seen people standing in front of it, looking at it.
The UK made bins cost 25,000 pounds each. And Renew has secured funding from a range of investors, including the Qatari Islamic Bank. They are due to trial soon in the US with one bin outside the New York stock exchange and are in talks with authorities in Singapore and Japan. So soon, commuters around the world could be reading the news and recycling on the go.
Joanna Patridge, Reuters.
