The sensor-equipped waste receptacles installed downtown. (Photo via DowntownDC BID)

They’re no WALL-E, but the waste receptacles in downtown D.C. and Anacostia are getting smarter.

Under a pilot program through D.C. government and the business improvement districts of DowntownDC and Anacostia, 87 total garbage cans with sensors built in are being installed. The American Beverage Association is providing some funding for the pilot program.

The sensors, basically mini-computers, can tell how full the garbage cans are, the temperature of the container (to prevent trash fires), and if household trash is being thrown in. They send that information through a closed system to an online dashboard that the BIDs can see. The BIDs will then share that data with the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Department of Public Works, which are launching a citywide pilot with 400 garbage cans.

“The idea is that if you have a lot of these, you can figure out, ‘we have to service this can six times a day,'” says Rachel Rose Hartman, a spokesperson for DowntownDC BID. “Deploying our ambassadors in a more efficient manner would be an immediate goal.”

The 34 garbage cans with sensors in Chinatown are distinguished by their bright red color and a side plaque with a Chinese dragon. Hartman says that right now, the BID is still working out the kinks and figuring out what other uses they might have for the data they’re collecting.

Malcolm Williams, the director of business development at the Anacostia BID, says that he hopes the program will “give a more granular understanding of where [the garbage] comes from and make our constituency aware of where some of the hot spots are.” They’re in the process of installing the 53 slated smart cans in the neighborhood, and Williams expects to be done by the end of the week.

He thinks having data for residents will be helpful, so they can see just how frequently the trash is getting picked up. “Our clean team will go through at 10 a.m., and then I come through at 11:30 a.m., knowing that they have been there, but you’ll still see stuff,” Williams says. “It’s a bit of a challenge.”

The garbage cans are designed by Victor Stanley, a Maryland-based company that makes “site furniture”—think benches, bike racks, tree guards, and other “street furnishings” for buyers like cities, developments, and universities.

The company launched their first sensor waste receptacle in August, after four years of product development, says Bryan Slaughenhoupt, vice president of product development and operations for Victor Stanley. The garbage cans are already in use in cities like Boston and Pittsburgh, which just approved an expansion of its pilot program, citing the ability to reallocate 15,000 working hours for public works staff each year to other department work.

These trash cans are not the only way that the District is trying out “smart” technology. This year, the city launched an effort to transition its streetlights to a wi-fi-connected grid system that will allow remote monitoring of the lights, so workers know when they need to be replaced.

“We are on the precipice of making the District the smartest city,” said Archana Vemulapalli​, the District’s chief technology officer, in January.

But as more and more objects get connected online, a phenomenon termed the “Internet of things,” are we inviting more opportunities for cyber attacks? In October, for instance, cyber attacks that led to widespread internet outages turned connected appliances like printers, routers, and even smart toasters into “botnets” that overloaded websites.

Could our garbage cans similarly betray us?

Slaughenhoupt says no. “The devices themselves specifically only communicate with our services,” he says. “The communication is encrypted. There is no potential of anybody being able to do anything with these devices.”

He says that the sensors don’t come with privacy concerns, either. “All it’s doing for the city is taking measurements,” says Slaughenhoupt. “It’s not taking a picture of what is actually being deposited. It’s not identifying people or siphoning off cell phone data.”

Victory Stanley is also working on adding sensors to some of its other “street furnishings,” though Slaughenhoupt declined to get into detail.

So should we all be intimidated that our garbage cans are smarter than we are? “Computers are really good at doing one thing but they’re actually really dumb—you have to tell them what to do,” says Slaughenhoupt.

Phew.