A city in Japan is testing the use of electric scooters by sanitation workers to travel between garbage collection points, aiming to reduce the risk of heat-related illness and ease the physical burden of daily walking routes.
Under the pilot program, collection workers in the city began using electric kick scooters on Wednesday to move between pickup locations instead of walking as they normally do. The trial is intended to assess how effective the vehicles are in daily collection work.
The main goals are to lower the risk of heat-related illness and to reduce the physical strain workers endure when covering long distances between collection points. In hot weather, limiting heavy physical exertion outdoors is seen as a way to protect workers' health.
The trial got under way on Wednesday and will be monitored to evaluate the feasibility and real-world effectiveness of using electric scooters in local garbage collection.
