First of all, we have these things called “smart-bins.” They’re solar-powered trash cans that compact the trash as they get filled up. This is, after all, the year Marty McFly travels to in Back to the Future II (the day is October 21st). People can be pissed off that they don’t have hoverboards, but the key “Mr. Fusion” technology is what we’re really missing. Trash cans converting our trash into… smaller trash is certainly the first step towards solving our renewable energy issues.

But that’s the future’s problem. A pilot program in New York City aims to use these smart bins for a more immediate concern: “I have no bars in this freaking City.” Waste management company, Bigbelly, wants to turn their solar-powered trash cans into Wi-Fi hotspots. TreeHugger reports:

Two of the smart bins in Manhattan were converted to act as hotspots this winter and they provide Wi-Fi at 50 to 75 megabits per second, which is fast enough to download an HD movie in just nine minutes. Now several hundred of NYC’s smart bins will be transformed into hot spots as soon as the Mayor’s office signs off on it, but likely this fall.

Trash cans actually act as great hot spots because they’re down at ground level and in the open, which lets them provide a strong signal that isn’t blocked by obstacles. Plus, their placement on street corners throughout a neighborhood make them extremely accessible.

The bins, which I guess will be dressed up like NASCAR racers to get advertising dollars, are marked for under served urban communities with weak Wi-Fi access. It’s actually a pretty noble use of the technology, even if it results in people standing around New York City trash cans like hobos around a bonfire.

I do wonder if this moves us one step closer to Wi-Fi access being regarded as a habitability right as opposed to a mere convenience? If you think about your standard apartment utilities, heat, hot water, and electricity all have to be made available to you by your landlord. Even though you still have to pay for it, the landlord cannot legally rent you an apartment that is not “hooked up” for freaking water.

Wi-Fi is the next step, right? In 30 years, it’s not going to be legal for your landlord to rent you a place without a Wi-Fi hotspot. Of course, in the 30 years, that hotspot will probably be your robot doorman, not your trash chute.