What was claimed
A video shows new public bins in Sheffield which require you to tap your card to pay to access them.
Our verdict
This isn’t quite right. Sheffield City Council says the bins shown in the video are specifically for nearby residents and businesses, who have to use a special fob to access them, not payment cards. Local businesses pay to use them similar to traditional commercial bins. There are freely accessible bins nearby for public use.
A viral video which claims that you need to pay by tapping your card to access bins installed in Sheffield is misleading.
The clip, which has been shared on X and Facebook, includes overlaid text saying: “New bins you have to pay to put your rubbish in. That’s rubbish.”
In the footage a person says “these new bins in Sheffield, you have to pay by card [...] you’ve got to tap your card to pay” and gestures doing so over a graphic on the bin of a hand tapping a card of some sort.
But according to the local council, the bins do not require payment cards to open them, with local businesses and nearby residents having fobs to use them.
Sheffield City Council confirmed to Full Fact that the bins, located in the pedestrianised Fargate area of the city centre, are not bins for the general public and don’t require you to tap-to-pay in order to use them.
The so-called ‘super-bins’ were introduced to replace large commercial bins as part of a multi-million pound revamp of the area. They sit above buried underground containers which store waste and recycling out of sight.
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A council spokesperson said the new bins are for residents of Chapel House, a building which houses apartments above shops on Fargate, just behind where the video was filmed.
The council told us residents don’t have to pay any additional amount for access to the bins. (Of course, those who pay council tax do indirectly fund rubbish collection services, however.)
The council spokesperson added: “These bins will also be used by commercial premises that currently have stand-alone above-ground bins. They will pay for them, like they would a traditional commercial bin.”
The council said businesses and Chapel House residents will have a fob to access these bins, noting that “public bins are sited next to these bins and are available for all residents and visitors to use”.
At one point in the viral video a sign can be seen that reads: “These bins are for TRADE AND RESIDENTIAL use only and can only be opened by key-card holders. PLEASE USE NEARBY PUBLIC BINS FOR GENERAL LITTER.”
A 2024 council newsletter describing the installation of the bins similarly notes they will be accessed via “key cards”.
The clip appears to have originally been shared on TikTok.
Before sharing content that you see on social media, first consider whether it comes from a reliable and verifiable source. Our Full Fact toolkit can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because these bins aren’t opened by tapping a payment card, but by using a special fob which is given to nearby residents and businesses.
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