NetBin — Smart City IoT Concept for Data-Driven Waste Collection

The challenge

Urban waste collection often relies on predefined routes and schedules, regardless of the actual fill level of individual bins. This can create two opposite inefficiencies: vehicles and operators may be sent to empty bins that are still almost unused, while full bins may remain unattended for too long, creating poor service, visual degradation and potential hygiene issues. Without current operational data, it is difficult to optimise collection routes, priorities and service frequency.

The product hypothesis

NetBin is a concept for an IoT system designed to be retrofitted onto existing waste bins. A compact device could measure fill level, temperature and internal humidity, periodically transmitting the data to a central platform. The platform could provide operators with an updated view of bin status and support the dynamic planning of waste-collection activities.

Potential users

• ·Public and private waste-collection companies
• ·Environmental-service providers
• ·Municipalities and local authorities
• ·Managers of large private areas
• ·Airports, railway stations and transport infrastructure
• ·Shopping centres
• ·Ports, marinas and tourism facilities
• ·Campuses and large corporate sites

Potential functions

• ·Fill-level detection
• ·Temperature and humidity monitoring
• ·Full-bin alerts
• ·Abnormal-temperature alerts
• ·Geographical bin visualisation
• ·Historical fill-level data
• ·Usage-frequency analysis
• ·Route-planning support
• ·Device-health and maintenance monitoring

Possible architecture

The system could include retrofit sensing devices; low-power battery-operated hardware; LoRa, LoRaWAN, mesh networking or other LPWAN technologies; one or more data gateways; a cloud platform; a web dashboard for operators and administrators; APIs for integration with fleet-management and waste-collection software. The communication technology has not yet been selected and would need to be evaluated according to coverage, urban density, battery life, infrastructure cost and reliability.

Questions to validate

• ·Which sensing technology can measure fill level reliably across bins of different shapes and materials?
• ·How should devices be protected from impact, dirt, moisture and vandalism?
• ·What battery life can realistically be achieved?
• ·Would mesh networking, public or private LoRaWAN, NB-IoT or another technology be most effective?
• ·Which transmission frequency provides the best balance between data freshness and battery life?
• ·How much could the system reduce kilometres travelled, operating hours and unnecessary collections?
• ·How should the data integrate with systems already used by waste-management companies?
• ·What cost per bin would make the solution commercially sustainable?

Current stage

NetBin is currently an internal venture concept developed within Fadelora. No prototypes, electronics, software, cloud platform or field tests have yet been completed. The next step would be a Product Discovery Sprint to define the operating context, select potential sensing technologies, compare connectivity options and estimate the economic value for waste-management operators.

What it represents for Fadelora

NetBin illustrates how a recurring operational problem could be addressed through a retrofit IoT product, avoiding the replacement of existing infrastructure and using real-world data to improve decisions and processes. The concept brings together service analysis, hardware, connectivity, cloud technology and potential integration with the customer’s operational systems.