How Derby City Council reduced their visits to bins by 53% using REEN Technology

Derby City Council is responsible for managing the waste and recycling services for the residents of Derby, England. They provide a range of services including the collection of household waste, recycling collections, and street cleaning.

The council aims to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and to increase the recycling rate in the city. They encourage residents to recycle as much waste as possible by providing them with separate bins for different recyclable materials. The council also runs several recycling facilities and provides information on how to recycle a wide range of household items.

Prior to REEN technology, Derby City Council had a paper-based system. They would attend a program of bin collection once a week or once a day. The paper-based system was built upon the local knowledge the staff has built over many Years.

“We had a paper-based system. We attended a program of bin collection. It could be once a week, or it could be once a day” says Lee Wheatley – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

With the services that Derby City Council runs, the team would never be in an office or in a factory together. Minimizing the planning and efficiency of the council

“With the nature of the services that we run our teams aren’t all in an office or factory together they are out and about spread across various places at one point. And naturally, that can lead to challenges such as communication, planning our service delivery, planning our logistics and really being as efficient as we possibly can” says Sam Kelly – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

REEN is a technology provider that streamlines the way waste is collected and transported. By combining world-class sensors with intelligent cloud-based tools, REEN uses data to make waste containers come to life.. Derby City Council have experienced tremendous changes using REEN’s world-class technology.

“The REEN system being an intelligent led system has helped us track demand and track when bins are full. With the old system, we would typically drive all around the city emptying bins on that frequency whether that bin was full or not” says Lee Wheatley – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

“To decide whether and where a bin needs placing is a judging call, that’s how we used to work before we put REEN technology in. What we can do now and what REEN technology can bring, is we can place a temporary bin with a sensor the n the top and we can place that bin in a hotspot area and move the bin about monitoring the fill level as we go along to really get the right spot for a bin before a permanent bin is installed” says Sam Kelly – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

Using REEN Technology Derby City Council has managed to reduce overtime, Co2 emissions, and fuel and has now relieved officer time making them more efficient across several activities.

“The REEN system tells us when a bin is getting full and tells us when the bin is likely to need collecting and on what day. So, it helps reduce the number of wasted journeys, cuts down on fuel, helps relieve officer time for other activities and it can help with things like overtime where the REEN system will tell us we need collecting on weekends and instead of working weekends we can collect them on a Friday” says Lee Wheatley – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

With the paper-based system, Derby City Council was using. They were collecting bins on local knowledge, not really knowing when the bins were full or which route to drive to Streamline their Waste Management. By using REEN Technology Derby City Council has now reduced their visits to bins by 53%!

“There were some bins that we were emptying too early. And we can class that as an unnecessary trip and by cutting out our unnecessary trips and using REEN Technology. We decreased our visits to bins by 53%” says Sam Kelly – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

“My advice to other local authorities is to Explore what’s out there. Technology in the industry is really developing and really growing. It can really help deliver better ways to operate the services and maximize the services and add value” says Lee Wheatley – Service Manager at Derby City Council.

Thank you to Sam and Lee, and thank you to Derby City Council for making a difference!