App lets city track garbage, recycling
Company says program will enable S.F. officials to improve curbside services
Tracking Santa Fe trash? There’s an app for that.
The city of Santa Fe has agreed to use an Atlanta company’s software that will allow officials to track how much of the city’s waste is going to the Caja del Rio Landfill and how much is being recycled.
Starting in April, Santa Fe will test the platforms of Rubicon Global, a technology company focused on sustainability issues.
Smartphones loaded with Rubicon’s program will be placed in the city’s garbage and recycling trucks, according to a press release issued by the company. This will enable real-time tracking of how much waste is picked up and where it goes.
The app works by tracking each garbage or recycling bin a truck picks up, said Will Haraway, a spokesman for the company. That’s how it is able to measure how much waste is dumped in the landfill or recycled.
The company also says the program will enable city officials to improve curbside services by tracking the time and location of each pickup, Haraway said.
Data collected by the app on the city’s nearly 30,000 residential and 2,500 commercial locations will enable city officials to answer a number of questions, including the amounts of waste and recycling produced by neighborhoods, Haraway said.
The company quoted Mayor Javier Gonzales praising the partnership. Santa Fe “has long been committed to sustainability and conservation,” he said.
Santa Fe is the second city to test the app, Haraway said. It launched in Atlanta in December.
There’s no cost to taxpayers for the six-month pilot project, said Adam Schlachter, outreach coordinator for the city’s Environmental Services.
Based on the results of the pilot project, the city plans to seek bids for a contract for such a technology application, he said.
The announcement of the trash app comes as the city is revamping its recycling program by giving residents 64-gallon bins for recyclables — with the exception of glass, which residents must now drop off at one of four recycling locations.
Santa Fe County has also made recycling changes by requiring private trash haulers to offer recycling pickup.
Critics of the city’s changes say Santa Fe will end up reducing its recycling rate by putting the burden of hauling the heaviest recyclable material — glass — on residents. But city officials say the Albuquerque-based Friedman Recycling, which is under contract to collect the city’s recyclables, does not accept glass. Offering curbside service for glass is cost-prohibitive, they say.
In recent years, the Santa Fe area has logged recycling rates lower than state and national averages, though the most recent data show improvements.
Santa Fe County in 2015 produced 119,284 tons of waste and recycled 22,054 tons of that waste, for a recycling rate of 19 percent, according to data from the New Mexico Environment Department. The statewide recycling average for reporting counties was 16 percent.