What’s the future of waste collections?

Most people operating in waste management will tell you that collections are where the challenges start. Co-mingled waste, recycling materials placed in residual waste, compostable food and garden waste too.

While Simpler Recycling seeks to address this by mandating segregation of materials and collections, in reality, it’s not that simple. Coordinating kerbside collections for households and businesses to align with the reforms is perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing local authorities and collection companies. Can technology change that?

Sorting is (mostly) sorted

To date, technologies have been primarily implemented within recycling facilities, using infrared and AI detection to improve sorting operations. Efficiency is high when clean loads come in, and to a degree the advanced technology helps when co-mingled or contaminated loads are processed. However, consider the potential recovery rates when the need for on-site sorting diminishes and efficiency moves further up the collections chain.

The challenge is that recyclers have little control over how waste is disposed of outside of their facilities. Bins can be provided with signage showing where paper, plastic or tins should be disposed of. However, there’s no guarantee that people will actually follow those instructions. In the UK, they’ve certainly shown little inclination to, to date.

It only takes one half fill food container in a bin of drink cans to contaminate much of the load. Inside of an MRF, AI sensors may identify and instruct removal from the system. The challenge is that efficiency and costs of operations are affected regardless. Improving productivity and profitability within waste management is unlikely to be achieved by one big fix. Instead, it’s hundreds of small incremental changes that add up to improve efficiency.

Tech tracing

One of the ways that technology has been able to do this is with fleet management. By monitoring routes for traffic and scheduling collections accordingly, it reduces the time spent collecting and driving between depots. This results in fuel savings, lower emissions and adds to shift operations efficiency.

In Europe, some recycling bins are equipped with sensors linked to an IoT network. This sends an alert when a bin is reaching capacity so that collection can be scheduled before the bin starts overflowing. The technology also helps monitor waste levels and, in some cases, types where waste is accurately separated. This helps to estimate the volume of feedstock being sent to various material recovery facilities.

The technology that’s yet to be successfully implemented in the UK is DRS. Europe, however, has well established DRS systems with 18 already in place to track material recovery. The difference is that DRS has become part of European culture and has a relatively high adoption rate. So much so that there are targets to achieve 90% collection rates by 2028. In the UK, there are still heated debates as to how it should be implemented and how it will affect existing recycling facilities.  

One of the questions being asked is whether digital passports can help improve collections. In theory, there’s a strong case for it, however, once again, it’s the implementation that’s the challenge. Digital passports require supply chain and manufacturing buy-in and systems to support it. It also requires industry and government cohesiveness. This is something that’s difficult to achieve when legislation competes for different priorities.

Lowering emissions has been a target that can work against waste management in that many fleets are made up of heavy-duty vehicles. Where inner-city areas are slated as low-emission and car free zones, how do you adapt waste collections and is tech the key to achieving this?  

The automated waste collection pilot project

In the Netherlands, an innovative automated approach to waste management is being piloted. The pilot is taking place in the city of Schiedam where parts of the inner city near the train station are car free zones. Instead of bin collections using vehicles, infrastructure of underground vacuum pipes is being built to support waste collections for 3000 local homes.

It’s an ambitious project routing recycling collections directly from homes into a central pneumatic sorting facility for processing. It eliminates the need for vehicles and operators which aligns with a key goal of the project is to reduce traffic and associated emissions in order to improve the quality of inner-city life for residents. Taking waste collections out of sight and connecting collections directly to homes instead of kerbsides is certainly an interesting approach.

Will this be the future of waste collections? Or is the more likely scenario electric collection vehicles and smarter scanning technology to analyse loads? Perhaps it’ll be a hybrid, adapted to the needs of specific areas and communities. The key to applying tech successfully is not to have technology for technology’s sake. Rather it’s to draw from the industry knowledge, experience and green skills to identify the gaps and where the potential exists for technology to close them.