Smart Waste Management Solutions

Smart waste management solutions are providing cities large and small with more effective and cost-efficient ways to collect trash and recycling.

While public waste management is an essential service, it is often challenged by budgetary pressures and significant inefficiencies. Trash and recycling never accumulate evenly – some bins will quickly overflow while others will be virtually empty. Yet trash crews are inevitably scheduled to visit each bin at regular intervals, making for a highly inefficient election process. Consequently, some bins are likely to overflow before they can be emptied, leading to health risks, infestations, complaints by residents and businesses, and a reduction in foot traffic which can impact local business.

Smart waste management solutions address these challenges by outfitting trash and recycling containers with low-cost smart waste sensors. These Internet of Things (IoT) devices can alert crews when bins need to be emptied, when noxious odors are present and even when bins have been tipped over. Some smart waste management solutions also include compactors powered by solar panels that compress waste and recycling materials, allowing smart waste management bins to hold more materials and requiring fewer trips by sanitation crews.

The benefits of smart waste management solutions are many and varied.

• Improved efficiency in attending to trash and recycling bins allows cities to save money on labor and on the costs of fuel and maintenance for vehicles.
• Targeted attention to bins that need emptying ensures that trash and recycling containers are never overflowing, helping to reduce infestations and other risks to public health.
• Fewer trips by waste management vehicles (which tend to stop often and hold up traffic) leads to less congestion on city streets. 
• Greater cleanliness in public areas translates to happier residents and businesses.
• A smart waste management system also provides greater insight into waste management activities, helping cities to more effectively manage the many vendors that are often involved in collecting various types of trash and recycling.

The technology that powers smart waste management solutions 

Smart waste management solutions comprise a number of technologies that are part of a common infrastructure for all smart city projects.

• IoT sensors that are built into or retrofitted onto trash and recycling containers provide real-time data on the location of bins, the type of materials they contain, the presence of odors, the temperature inside containers, and whether containers need to be emptied.
• A network with diverse connectivity options connects the sensors and transmits the enormous amount of data they produce to the cloud.
• A smart city waste management platform enables city officials to view the status of trash and recycling bins and to manage the sensors that monitor them.
• Data analytics software transforms the raw data that streams in from thousands of sensors and transforms it into useful intelligence. These smart waste management solutions alert waste management crews to bins that need attention, program efficient collection routes and provide city officials with data that can help to plan for future waste management infrastructure.

Spectrum Enterprise: infrastructure for smart waste management solutions

As a partner to many smart cities throughout the U.S., Spectrum Enterprise provides a foundation of connectivity that can quickly and easily connect technology for smart waste management using IoT sensors back to city analytics platforms. Spectrum currently has more than 840,000 miles of fiber network infrastructure in place and is currently expanding capacity and capabilities with an additional $25 billion of investment in new infrastructure.

With Spectrum Enterprise, cities can support their smart waste management solutions and other smart city initiatives with:

• Symmetrical connection speeds up to 100 Gbps on a two-way, fully interactive digital network.
• Wireless connections at thousands of WiFi hotspots that will soon include 5G and 802.11ax technology for wireless speeds up to 1 Gbps.
• Cellular connections through Spectrum Mobile, one of the nation’s largest LTE cellular networks.
• Internet connectivity for homes and businesses, with gigabit connection speeds in the Spectrum service area.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.