Trashman, Crusher and Sorting Sid

These aren't nicknames for Councillors, but are inspiration for encouraging engagement with Bristol citizens.

I maintain a list of Bristol City Council videos on BU. Most of the videos are of Council Meetings, but today a new video appeared that was a bit different.

A van seized by authorised officers who suspected it had been used for transporting controlled waste by someone operating as an unlicenced waste carrier, is crushed after not being claimed by the owner.

This got me thinking about what other videos could Bristol City Council publish Videos of people getting parking tickets? Graffiti being cleaned up? Or perhaps there are other ways that the Council could educate and entertain at the same time.

Another council has published a game where you can learn how to sort waste at home, and earn "rewards" for your virtual park. You can even get a certificate to show off your sorting success! Perhaps this could be used to increase recycling rates.

I am old enough to remember a game on the ZX Spectrum called Trashman, where your task as the local binman is to collect rubbish/trash from the neighbourhood, dump it in your bin lorry and repeat for the entire street. As you work, you’ll encounter cyclists, cars, dogs and customers who’ll often want a chat, a game of scrabble or just need your help.

It's got cyclists on pavements and dangerous dogs as well.

Trashman also has a local connection. The creator of Trashman, Malcolm Evans, worked in Bristol and also named the locations in the game after roads in Bath.

You can watch a review of the game here.

Perhaps Bristol City Council can think of other ways of engaging with us in a more entertaining manner.