Middelburg local council is going to shut up most of its talking rubbish bins following complaints from locals.

The rubbish bins, which have been part of the street furniture since 2022, say “thank you” whenever they are used to encourage people to deposit their waste where it belongs.

“It’s driving me nuts. Children think it’s great fun to push the pedal time and again. And then it’s “thank you thank you thank you” one local told broadcaster Omroep Zeeland . “Imagine having to listen to that hundreds, maybe thousands of times a day,” she said.

Another phrase now no longer uttered by the bins went “How nice, you are keeping our city clean”. There is nothing “nice” about it, another local said. “Try being within earshot of the thing all day long and see how nice it is then,” she told the broadcaster.

The Zeeland town is keeping some of the talking bins in places where they are not too near houses.