People stunned after seeing how garbage actually gets collected from public trash cans

A video has gone viral which shows the way that the bins are collected in the Netherlands.

You might understandably be thinking that sounds ridiculous, and how on Earth could people possibly find something as mundane as collecting the bins so fascinating?

Well, if you watch the video then I'm sure you will change your mind.

The footage shows street trash cans which you might walk past in the Netherlands blissfully unaware of just what it is you are passing by.

At a glance the trash cans look fairly innocuous, they seem much like any trash can you might see on the street.

But these trash cans are hiding something.

You might think, what on earth could a trash can on a sidewalk be hiding?

If we're being honest, we probably don't want to get into that question too deeply, but in the case of these ones in particular, it's their sheer size.

That's because the bins are the trash equivalent of an iceberg, with only a small proportion of them actually showing above the surface.

TikTok / @tress_smith

What you see on the surface actually leads to a huge trash reservoir underneath.

We're talking almost big enough to be rented out as a studio apartment in downtown New York.

This is emptied by extracting the entire enormous container with a specialised hook before the bottom opens up over a waiting refuse van.

The container then seamlessly disappears back into the ground, with only the small bin showing on the sidewalk.

The video was posted online by Tressley, who goes by @tress_smith on TikTok, and posted the video about their life since moving to the Netherlands.

Since being posted the video has racked up an astonishing 5.8 million views on the app.

TikTok / @tress_smith

People were stunned by just how much bigger the bin was than they were expecting, and took to the comments on TikTok to share their thoughts on it.

One person wrote: "It’s really cool that it has a built-in safety barrier that automatically comes up and prevents anyone falling in the hole."

Another was extremely impressed by the design, saying: "My jaw dropped. This is genius. Helps reduce overflowing cans and garbage falling on sidewalks."

Another shared their surprise, writing: "That’s amazing. I always wondered how those things worked!"

Someone else raised some concerns about the smell, saying: "Smells lovely I'm sure."

But Tressley reassured them: "Doesn’t smell at all since it’s underground."