A Jerusalem pilot program to install sensors in underground garbage bins caused a furor among the religious community due to the desecration of Shabbat it could cause, a report on Mynet Jerusalem wrote last week.
The sensor program was initiated by the Jerusalem municipality to increase the efficiency of garbage collection in Jerusalem neighborhoods. The sensors will automatically alert the municipality when the garbage bins are full, allowing garbage collectors to plan their route accordingly. The current system in which garbage is collected according to a neighborhood route causes a waste of time and energy in emptying garbage bins which are mostly empty.
However, a problem arose when haredi rabbis caught wind of the initiative and realized that the sensors would transmit information using electrical output every time someone threw garbage in the bin - which is forbidden to Orthodox Jews on Shabbat and holidays.
The haredi rabbis threatened to protest against the municipality but it proved unnecessary as following a meeting with rabbis, the municipality agreed to deactivate the sensors on Shabbat. The sensors will be turned off every Friday from 4:00 PM until Saturday night at 10:00 PM.
Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin of Har Nof demanded a written commitment to the agreement and the municipality complied. "The times that the sensors will be deactivated will be determined according to the times of the beginning of Shabbat and its end. Changes in the system will be applied only with the approval of the operations manager. As long as no other order is given, the status quo will remain."