The city of Prague is partnering with Sensoneo – a waste management solutions start-up – on a pilot project featuring dynamic waste collection via automated collection routes. The project is expected to deliver improvements in efficiency and a reduction in the environmental impact of waste collection.
The pilot will incorporate over 130,000 trash cans and 150 collection vehicles and will include real-time monitoring of 550 containers for electronic waste. The operational phase will fully launch in March of 2021 and the entire project will run until September of 2022. Funding is partly provided by the Horizon2020 program of the European Innovation Council.
The project includes:
- Collection Efficiency Analysis (As-Is Analysis) for all waste commodities. This will use Sensoneo’s method of processing data related to containers, vehicles, and routes. It will provide identification of weak points and opportunities for savings and improvement of the quality of service;
- Set-up of the new cycling routes and frequencies (To-Be Analysis) in order to increase the efficiency and quality of service. The project will seek to combine the shortest possible routes, on-time collection, and maximum possible utilisation of vehicle capacity – with the long-term goal of reducing the number of vehicles used during waste collection;
- Collecting waste via automated routes to facilitate the employment of drivers without prior driving experience in particular districts or particular routes; and,
- Final evaluation – showcasing the savings in time, cost, fuel, and reduced emissions with a Before-After comparison.
“Digitization is a huge topic in the field of waste management. It has been our long-term goal to identify and implement the tools that drive the improvement of the waste collection process and the quality of our service. This project upgrades the established systems of daily planning, real-time performance monitoring and evaluation. Planning waste collection routes for over 130 thousand containers in Prague is a complex and very demanding job and the successful outcome of this project can significantly help to improve it,” said Patrik Roman, CEO of Pražské služby – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the city of Prague which is responsible for waste services.