Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Bins tagged to monitor recycling
5000 homes in two-year trial
Thousands of bins across North Lanarkshire are to have new electronic tags installed to monitor recycling rates.
Radio- frequency ID devices will be put onto the multiple wheelie bins of 5000 properties in the local authority area – and three bin lorries will then have smart technology installed to weigh the amounts of mixed recycling, food and garden, and residual waste being collected.
The equipment wi l l “measure individual household participation in recycling” by giving information from each bin, with the data then being used to test the impact and success of different communication and campaign methods on subsequently improving recycling figures.
Councillors on North Lanarkshire’s environment committee unanimously approved the introduction of the £ 150,000 smart waste monitoring project, funded by Zero Waste Scotland ( ZWS), at their virtual meeting last week. Its convener, Glenboig councillor Michael McPake, told members: “It shows that this council is willing to do their bit and work to drive up recycling within our area, and we’re doing as much as we possibly can.”
The location for the two- year trial is still to be chosen, with the participating properties to be concentrated on the routes of one set of vehicles and likely to be around the middle of North Lanarkshire’s current range of recycling rates.
A report for committee members said: “Identification tags will be installed on wheeled bins of the 5000 properties, providing information from individual bins.
“Unique references will be issued to each property, but no personal data will be gathered. There will be no disruption to routes, collection frequency and material type will not change.
“While the trial does not measure contamination, the data will provide levels of recycling participation against residual waste disposal which will be collected at household level.
“Key to the project will be to determine which campaigns and interventions work best to reduce residual waste and increase recycling.”
Head of waste solutions Andrew McPherson told the virtual meeting: “We need to drive up our recycling rate and this is hopefully one way that will be done.
“North Lanarkshire has been chosen because ZWS realise the potential to recycle more is there.
“The data won’t be used at household level but is to inform national and better targeted recycling campaigns in the future and see initiatives’ impact on the amount of waste being discarded and recycled in a council area.
“Hopefully we should recycle more [which would] reduce the costs of our disposal.”
The project will see ID tags and weighing equipment installed and data being collected in the first year of the programme, followed by 12 months of test interventions and measurement of their impact.
Householders will be contacted “before, during and after the trial”, with communications including “frequently-asked questions, allowing them to highlight any concerns, and allowing the service to provide advice and reassurance on how the data will be processed”.
ZWS will fund the project including the required technology and “additional replacement bins where [ existing ones] are not compatible with RFID tags”.
North Lanarkshire is one of several councils set to be involved in similar pilots, and environment committee members were told: “Household behaviour change is key to Scotland’s waste targets.
“To push recycling rates to 60 per cent or higher will require new approaches and better insight into individual household performance is an essential component of how we achieve that.”