A high- tech collection effort

Garbage bin IDs to streamline truck routes in Deerfield

The four- person tag team moved through Villages of Hillsboro recently.

As they moved methodically down each street, they paused at each brownbin, attached a tag and moved on. The rest of the city lay ahead, and they had just two weeks to transform Deerfield Beach’s waste hauling routes.

Anyone who forgot to put the garbage bin out on the appointed day might have been surprised to see the vested worker on their property looking for it. Theywere authorized, under the city’s twoweek effort to streamline collection routes.

Residents were asked to put their bins curbside by 7 a. m. on their appointed collection day and to leave them out until after 5 p. m. Thatwas so the private firm hired by the city could paste on it a radio frequency ID tag with a unique number linked to the house address.

By tracking pickups from every solidwaste cart in the city, matching what was collected to a given area, the city could determine which routes were underutilized.

“The idea behind it is to improve our overall efficiency,” said Patrick Bardes, a co- compliance specialist for recycling and solid waste management.“We’ll be able to break down each route by the amount of pick- ups and balance the routes.”

That could save the city on gas and residents some green.

But residents had to put the carts curbside on their normal collection days for the tracking system to be attached.

“If your cart is not at the curb but is visible and easily accessible, we have instructed the vendor to enter the property and tag the cart,” city spokeswoman Rebecca Medina said.

If the system still passed you by, it’s not too late.

“Whatever does not get tagged, they will give us a list,” said Roger Pitts, a solid waste supervisor. “At some point, you have got to put your garbage out, and we’ll keep checking.”

For information about the tagging program, call 954- 480- 4389.