Derby City Council’s street cleansing and grounds maintenance teams are rolling out new litter bin sensor technology.
It has completed a successful trial of the ‘fill level’ sensors provided by REEN, which monitors how fast a bin is filling up and provides an alert when it needs emptying.
The technology is now to be deployed in litter bins across parks, streets and open spaces across Derby to reduce overflowing litter bins and manage bin collections more efficiently and effectively.
REEN said this has helped to overcome a problem in which operatives would work on collections based on a written schedule and never know in advance if a bin was full, overflowing or only half full.
The trial involved fixing the sensors to 200 bins in areas where routine cleansing was once every few weeks. It reduced the number of complaints about overflowing bins, helped to reduce the number of visits by 53% and provided evidence for collection routes to be fully optimised, detailing the order each bin should be emptied and the route the operatives should take from site to site.
Derby Council anticipates that as the technology is expanded further, the same team will be able to maintain additional sensor bins.
Smarter working
Service manager Sam Kelly said: “This digital solution has enabled a smarter, leaner way of working. The future capabilities of the technology include the ability for us to make more data led decisions – such as knowing if an area requires an additional bin or a double capacity bin to reduce littering.
“For example, when additional bin requests are received, a temporary sensor bin can be utilised to assess the fill level and determine if a bin is actually required.
“This also allows a review of the current ‘binfrastructure’ as the system can be used to see if any bins are not being used. This will help to inform where bins can be removed or relocated, so communities have ‘the right bin in the right place’.”
