Problems with Urban Waste Collection and How Evreka Can Solve Them

Urban waste collection is expenditure on government budgets. While developed countries tend to spend more on waste management processes due to environmental concerns, refuse or waste collection still seems to be managed with traditional methods and it is not progressing fast enough. In this regard, a routine would be garbage trucks set off, go over a predetermined route and stop by every dumpster and garbage container as they go. This scenario is roughly the same either in the most developed countries or 3rd world countries.

Main Problems and Challenges of Traditional Waste Management

The way cities manage their waste collection is inefficient in terms of budget, equipment, labor force and time. Just to give you an idea, urban populations today produce around 4.6 kilograms of solid waste per capita. The collection and management of this waste require around $300 per capita annually. Most of the high-income cities in the world collect a portion of this cost from citizens as fees, which is roughly around $170. The rest is usually compensated by the tax revenue of the local governments. This creates a strain and uncollectible cost both on taxes and local government budgets.

Moreover, managing numerous garbage trucks all over the city and operating their stops by every garbage container and dumpster is neither efficient nor optimized. This method can be compared to the “brute force” method in software technology. Yes, it works; but it is not cost-effective in terms of time, processing power and effort.

By optimizing the collection of waste in urban areas the cost of waste management can be reduced significantly. In addition, garbage trucks disrupting the traffic causes more indirect inefficiencies for the municipalities.

Communication between the field teams and management is also an issue in the traditional waste/refuse collection methods. Most of the time progress tracking is conducted with radios. Such traditional methods are not capable of detailed real-time data collection. And without sufficient and accurate data collection, the optimal route cannot be determined therefore, the process is far from being cost-effective.

Aforementioned challenges cause environmental and financial effects such as;

• Inefficient use of fuel.
• Inefficient use and recruitment of workforce.
• Time management issues.
• Unstructured data collection for management.
• Miscommunication between field employees and management.

 

The Solution for Efficient Waste Collection Management

Evreka provides a modern and environmental-friendly solution to traditional waste collection systems via its wireless sensors. Evreka Smart Waste Management Solution includes sensors that are resistant to heat, water and impacts, installed into the dumpsters and garbage containers all around the city. These sensors send location, temperature and fill rate information to the cloud server. Refuse collection routes can be created or managed according to the real-time data collected from the dumpsters and containers all around the city. Evreka Smart Waste Collection System also predicts the fill ratio according to past and real-time data for further improving the efficiency of collection routes.

Drivers are directed through the route with a GPS assisted panel on the dashboard. This tablet-like device also sends real-time location information to the servers so collection progress and the location of each refuse collection vehicle can be tracked in real-time.

Management staff can follow the whole process and access the collected data through a visual and easy-to-understand administration panel over a computer. Through the same administration panel performance reports and detailed analyses can also be accessed.

Evreka increases the efficiency of waste collection operations by;

• Decreasing fuel consumption,
• Reducing carbon emissions,
• Decreasing the number of vehicles,
• Reducing the time needed for operations,
• Decreasing the workforce needed,
• Eliminating overflow problems.

Evreka Smart Waste Management Solution can decrease the costs and emissions due to refuse collection operation by up to 70%. This is indeed a serious reduction both in terms of finance and environmental impact. Evreka Smart Waste Collection System is the progress that has the potential to transform the traditional refuse collection processes that cities have been implementing for a long time.