Smart Bins for Cities

How fill data changes route planning

A fill-level sensor turns each container into a data point, and route planning software turns those points into a daily list of bins to visit. Instead of emptying every bin on a fixed timetable, the round is built around bins that are nearly full, plus those that must be emptied for hygiene or legal reasons. In a 2018 study in Expert Systems with Applications, Ramos and colleagues compared three operational approaches that use real-time fill-level data and reported significant profit improvements over the real operation in their case study. Your results will depend on how full bins usually are when emptied, how widely they are spread and how much flexibility crews and contracts allow.

Choose sensors and bins for each location

Different places need different hardware. Sensor listings such as the Nordsense Sensor and Enevo Sense, and bin listings such as the Ecube Labs CleanCUBE, answer different needs, so ask each maker how its unit fits your existing containers or replaces them. Ask how each sensor measures fill, how it copes with irregular items, liquids and frost, how it is fixed in place and how often its battery needs changing. Check which network it uses and confirm coverage at every planned location, including underground car parks and narrow streets. With the Enevo Sense listed at about $250 in October 2026, it is realistic to equip a handful of awkward streets first and expand once the data proves useful.

Security questions for connected bins

Once bins report data, they become part of a city's connected infrastructure, so treat sensors as you would other networked devices. The National Cyber Security Centre's Connected Places Cyber Security Principles, published in 2021 and reviewed in November 2024, are aimed at UK local and national authorities that design, build and run connected places, and group their advice under understanding, designing and managing those systems, including oversight of the supply chain. Use them to frame procurement questions: where data is stored, how devices are updated and authenticated, who at the supplier can reach your platform and how access is removed when staff change. Ask suppliers to answer in writing and keep the answers with the contract.

Service levels and end-of-life terms

Sensors and smart bins are a service as much as a purchase, so put the service into the contract. Set levels for the share of devices reporting each day, how quickly a failed unit is replaced and how batteries are swapped, with remedies if those slip. Ask who cleans and inspects compacting bins, how vandalism is handled and what spares the supplier holds locally. Agree how firmware updates are tested before they reach every device. At the end of the contract or of each device's life, require the supplier to collect old units and batteries for proper recycling, because a city's sensor network can otherwise become a waste problem of its own.

Sources and further reading

• The smart waste collection routing problem: alternative operational management approaches — Expert Systems with Applications (record at Iscte, University Institute of Lisbon).
  Peer-reviewed study comparing ways to plan collection routes from real-time bin fill-level data.
• Connected Places Cyber Security Principles — National Cyber Security Centre (UK).
  Security principles for authorities that design, build and run connected places, from risk to supply chain.

Common questions

How do smart bins know when they are full?

Typically a sensor mounted near the top of the container measures the distance down to the waste, for example by ultrasound, and reports the reading over a wireless network at set intervals. Software converts that distance into a fill level for each container on a map.

Are smart bins worth it for small towns?

They can be where bins sit far apart or are often emptied half full, as at rural lay-bys and parks. Where rounds are short and bins fill predictably, the savings may be small. A short trial on the most awkward routes will show whether the data changes decisions.