"SMART bins" which can inform council waste collection teams when they need to be emptied could be rolled out in one Essex borough.

Basildon Council is "investing" in new technology which would regulate how full bins are and commute this back to the collection teams to ensure bins in public spaces are not left overflowing, according to the council leader. 

It comes as the council is carrying out a major overhaul of how bins are collected from homes across the borough, with a consultation ongoing into what residents want to see for their bin collections. 

Council leader Gavin Callaghan says there's an issue with waste and dog waste bins not being emptied and the council is working on the new technology. 

Speaking in a Facebook Live video he said: "One of the things we are investing in as a council is essentially smart bins, it's a chip in the bin that starts to tell us when it's 20 per cent full, 50 per cent full, 75 per cent full.

"That's going to go through something called in-cab technology it will be able to go the waste trucks so as soon as we know it is 75 per cent we can factor in going to collect the bin and empty it so we don't end up in a situation where it's on a rota and it might be full up after a week and then for a few weeks its sat there full.

"It's not an immediate thing to be able to fix that but by using the technology and getting our workers to use the technology we will be able to move quicker at getting some of this stuff done."

It comes after it was revealed at a council meeting that a controversial waste collection process in the borough made Basildon "look like a disaster" movie and that it cost taxpayers £1.2million. The figure was revealed as councillors debated how inappropriate recycling bags were chosen across the borough.