Trash collection and recycling is a resource intensive process that costs U.S. cities roughly $55 billion annually. To help solve this problem, our Wireless Design Services team worked with BigBelly Solar, dubbed as the smart grid of waste and recycling, to develop a wireless solution that reduces the amount of resources needed to collect trash and recyclables. With the help of a cellular connection, each BigBelly trash can is connected to the Internet. When a bin is full, it sends out a signal to notify waste removal teams that it’s time for a pick-up.
BigBelly is working with the city of Philadelphia, which is adopting this new waste collection strategy and quickly realizing a return on investment. BigBelly’s trash cans compact its contents– increasing the capacity of each bin by 5. Eliminating the need to constantly check the amount of trash in each bin is saving the city millions. The reduction in resources and labor dedicated to keeping the streets of Philadelphia clean has enabled the city to devote more time to improving the recycling program.
CNN recently featured the BigBelly and Philadelphia collaboration as part of their ‘City Tomorrow’ series. Click the image below to watch the feature.
Click to watch video
Interested in learning more about how Etherios helped connect BigBelly’s trash cans to the Internet of Things? Check out their customer story to get more details.
