A clean sweep? Tokyo puts robot bins to the test

A wheely good idea: A young commuter disposing waste in a mobile robotic trash bin being tested at the Shinjuku Station transport complex in Tokyo. The trial will test the robots in the station’s busy underground concourse, where they are designed to collect rubbish and deliver it to human workers. — AFP

The world’s busiest railway station, located at the heart of Tokyo, is testing whether mobile robotic rubbish bins can ease the workload of sanitation workers, a rail operator representative said.

Shinjuku Station is a sprawling transport complex with multiple rail firms that serve more than 2.7 million passengers every day, and holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s busiest rail station.

In a part of the station operated by East Japan Railway, the bins are emptied manually more than 10 times a day – though the number of wastebaskets has been reduced in recent years for cleanliness and security reasons.

JR East is testing three automa­ted bins, each standing just over 1m tall and moving at a cautious 20cm per second.

“We wanted to test how well something like this can operate automatically and safely in an environment like Shinjuku Station,” said Shinya Kawamichi, a JR East research official.

“We want to see how much of a difference mobile trash bins that collect garbage make, and whether people are actually willing to throw their trash into them,” he said.

Mobile robotic trash bins are pictured during testing at the Shinjuku Station transport complex in Tokyo on September 18, 2026. The world's busiest railway station, located at the heart of Tokyo in Japan, is testing whether mobile robotic rubbish bins can ease the workload of sanitation workers, a rail operator representative said on September 18. (Photo by Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP)

The trial project, which runs until late November, will put the robots up against the station’s always-hectic underground concourse, where they are meant to bring trash to human workers.

Kawamichi said the robots are designed to be “slow so that people can put trash in them and so (they) can stop at any moment”.

The company also wanted to test if the robots can navigate busy crowds and be accepted by commuters – with an eye to expanding the future uses of this technology. The bulky, googly-eyed devices have become a hit among tourists, many of whom stopped to snap photos.

“The eyes are very cute,” said German train driver Chris Genseliein, 30, adding that he had a tough time finding bins in Japanese train stations.

Despite being an enormous complex with two above-ground floors and a massive underground section, JR East’s section of Shinjuku Station only has seven sets of bins and recycling boxes.

Some Japanese passengers said stations are kept clean because people take their trash home.

But others welcomed the added convenience.

“It’s just easier if you could throw things away while walking,” said university student Ryunosuke Noguchi, 22. — AFP