Reference: More efficient waste collection resulting in cost savings

Waste monitoring Right Frequencies
Waste collection New Routes
2 municipalities Project Scale

Customer description

The customer is a private waste collection company servicing 2 municipalities located in close proximity. Both municipalities are collected by the same vehicle. Municipalities have large-capacity bins that require hydraulic arm.

Problem description

Current collection plan is not efficient. All bins within the municipality are collected by one route. The vehicle capacity is not used to the fullest and some bins are overflowing. Waste Monitoring with Smart Sensors have discovered that bins are just 24 % full when collected in Municipality A and just 45 % full when collected in Municipality B. (Average for 6 month period) The waste monitoring data clearly showed there is potential for improvement and new collection routes need to be calculated.

Expectations from Sensoneo

01 Fullness monitoring in bins
02 Calculation of new collection routes
03 Better quality of service for citizens
04 More efficient waste collection and cost savings

Our Collection Planning Engine can accommodate data from Smart Sensors, multiple rules and count in different variables such as filling cycles of bins, vehicle capacity, trash type, kilometres driven, costs and more.  The Engine is a result of in-house R&D. The idea is to maximize the waste collected per kilometre driven. In this case, data from Smart Sensors allowed us to adjust collection frequencies to collect fuller bins.

Tomas Vincze Regional Sales Manager for Czech Republic

Implementation

Sensoneo Waste Monitoring solution combines Smart Sensors, the Smart Waste Management System and the Citizen App. The Smart Sensors use ultrasound technology to measure the fill levels in bins and containers several times a day and send the data to the Smart Waste Management System, a powerful cloud-based platform, via the Internet of Things (Sigfox, NB-IoT, LoRaWAN, GPRS).

Mockup of Sensoneo software system where the data about the fill-level of the bins are available. Mockup of Sensoneo Citizen app and quatro and single sensors.

 

All large-capacity bins were monitored by Single Sensor. The Sensor measures 24 times a day how full is the bin and sends the data via LoRaWAN network to Sensoneo backend. The Operator can follow the latest measurements in the Dashboard, part of Smart Waste Management System.

 

The covers of semi-underground bins.

 

The Smart Waste Management System, a powerful cloud-based platform on Microsoft Azure, offers Waste Monitoring features such as detailed bin inventory, digital interactive map, sensor configuration, display of live data from Smart Sensors, future predictions on fill levels, different notifications – fire and tilt alarm, citizen feedback and manual itinerary planning for waste collection.

We were collecting the data from Smart Sensors for 6 months without any adjustments to collection frequencies or routes. 

63% cost savings in Municipality A

Before

The collection frequency was set to 1x per 30 days (or 12x per year). All bins are collected by 1 collection route. The Smart Sensors were deployed and data collected over a 6-month period shows clearly that bins are just 24 % full when collected.

 

Map of the municipality where the current collection route for garbage truck that is highlighted in blue.

After

After reviewing the average fill level in bins, we recommend to adjust collection frequency and organize more than just one collection route to service all bins. Recommend frequencies are:

  • Route 1: 1x every 2 months
  • Route 2:  1x every 4 months
  • Route 3: 1x every 6 months

New routes resulted in 63 % cost savings.

 

Three maps of the municipality where different collection routes are highlighted in blue.

43% cost savings in Municipality B

Before

The collection frequency was set to 1x per 60 days (or 6 x per year). All bins are collected by 1 collection route. The Smart Sensors were deployed and data collected over a 6-month period shows clearly that bins are just 45 % full when collected.

 

Map of the municipality where the current collection route for garbage trucks is highlighted in blue.

After

After reviewing the average fill level in bins, we recommend to adjust collection frequency and organize more than just one collection route to service all bins. Recommend frequencies are:

  • Route 1:  1x every 2 months
  • Route 2:  1x every 6 months

New routes resulted in 43 % cost savings.

 

Two maps of the municipality where different collection routes are highlighted in blue.

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More references

We help customers manage waste smarter

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  • Prague is optimizing waste collection of undeground bins with smart waste sensors

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  • $156 Annual savings per sensor
  • 3294 Number of sensors

  • Rosenheim utilizing all benefits of smart waste management in paper waste collection

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  • 92 Number of sensors
  • 86% Average fill-level

  • Real-time data on the fill levels of semi-underground bins in Patras Open Mall project in Greece

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  • 126 Number of containers
  • Different streams Type of waste
  • Semi-underground Type of bins