What Happened
The city of Nottingham, England, famous for its links to the legend of Robin Hood, recently penned a deal to install 130 smart trash bins that will save the city money by cutting down on collections; the bins email the city’s cleaning-services department when they are 85 percent filled.
So What?
Intelligent waste collection is gaining steam in the U.S., and now globally. More than 1,000 municipalities have installed smart systems for collecting trash, as they can be up to 80 percent more efficient than traditional collection procedures. That can help decrease costs significantly, enable cities to save or redeploy staffers more efficiently.
The Details
The city council of Nottingham, which is one of the most well-known British cities outside of London, will rent 130 smart “rubbish” containers, which are actually trash compactors that can store more than traditional bins. The bins use a wireless data technology to communicate fullness information to appropriate municipal departments in real-time; the bins send out emails or text messages when they are 85 percent full, and a “command center” can provide trash-collection departments with a single view of the bins’ status.
The Financials
Nottingham will sign a five-year deal for the bins at a cost of £493,740 (about $790,000, or $160,000 per year). Sound expensive, but—according to reports—the number of collections can be reduced by up to 80 percent.
That was the case in Philadelphia, for example, which had been making 17 weekly trips to empty 700 wire baskets throughout the city center. Those pickups required 33 employees working three shifts, at a cost of $2.3 million per year. After replacing those baskets with 710 smart compactors, collections dropped to 5 per week, requiring only nine workers on a single shift. Annual cost dropped to $720,000, saving $1.8 million or 70 percent.
Similarly, report cited by the local British media claimed the bins would “reduce costs and enable street cleaning services to remove and collect litter in the city centre in a cost-effective way, which includes efficiency savings on labour, fuel and vehicle costs.” Savings from not having to empty bins should cover the annual cost of the agreement.
The Vendor
The bins are provided by BigBelly Solar, a company with which most Americans are now familiar. Headquartered in Newton, Mass., the company has focused on improving cost efficiency for cities and towns. Additional case studies and system information is available.
Financial Upside?
Interestingly, the bins also include advertising panels, as well as wraps, decals, and messaging panels. Some cities have found sponsors to defray installation costs, and others have found third-parties to pay for installation entirely. In Boston, for example, an outdoor advertising company called Vector Media paid to install and maintain the units in exchange for the ability to sell advertising on them.
Next Steps
If you’d like to learn more about Nottingham’s decision and implementation, contact the city’s Strategic Finance Manager Ian Greatorex via email (okay, if you want to make the international call, it’s 011-5-876-3132. Another domestic municipal contact in a city that has deployed BigBelly Solar is El Paso (TX) Sustainability Manger Marty Howell. For more information on BigBelly Solar, you unfortunately have to use their contact form; not very customer-service friendly, but they don’t list any employees to contact. They do have a generic sales email account, but that’s not very helpful. Please note that Gov1 has no relationship with BigBelly Solar, and does not endorse nor benefit from the company; rather, we are providing the information above as a service to readers who are considering deployment of similar private social networks.