Unique smart waste management solution delivering 60% reduction on CO2 emissions caused by the waste collection process

Project Information

SENS

Grant agreement ID: 101010676

DOI

10.3030/101010676

Project closed

EC signature date 5 November 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• PRIORITY 'Societal challenges

Total cost

€ 1 954 840,00

EU contribution

€ 1 368 388,00

Coordinated by

SENSONEO, J.S.A.
Slovakia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SENS (Unique smart waste management solution delivering 60% reduction on CO2 emissions caused by the waste collection process)

Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Global waste production is estimated to be around 2.01bn tonnes of solid waste per year. This is expected to rise by almost 70% to 3.4 tonnes in 2050. As a result, the global smart management market is expected to grow to €2.8 bn by 2023, with CARG of around 17% in this period. Sensoneo responds to these trends by providing a smart enterprise grade waste management solution for cities and businesses to cost-efficiently manage the waste lifecycle and improve the environment and well-being of people.

Through its innovative smart waste management technologies that are all results of in-house R&D and produced in the EU, Sensoneo helps customers to cope with the biggest challenges in today’s world of waste management – lack of efficiency and transparency.

The company's solutions include Smart Sensors that monitor waste in real-time, advanced tracking and monitoring equipment, and sophisticated software providing digital transformation and data-driven decision making which results in transparent waste streams, optimization of waste collection routes, frequencies, and vehicle loads, and the introduction of easy-to-run incentive programs dedicated to decreasing waste production. The company also provides comprehensive solutions that digitalize, optimize, and automate the complex reverse logistics of post-consumer take-back, recycling, and processing such as deposit return systems.

Sensoneo digitalized (RFID tags) and monitored (with sensors) more than 100 000 waste bins in 2 European capitals and installed their innovative solution Watchdog for automatic digitalization of waste collection process to the cities’ own waste collection companies fleet.

Installation of more than 4000 Sensoneo sensors into bins get an accurate overview of the filling cycles and adjust the waste collection logistics accordingly. Extensive testing of Driver Navigation application developed and designed to meet specific requirements of waste collection vehicles in a highly demanding environment of a historic town enabled to fine-tune the solution, respond to all possible demands and challenges of waste collection operators, and hence gain an excellent reference for any future deployments.

Sensoneo developed a prototype of its sensor with radar technology, originally designed to detect contamination of different types of waste, mostly biowaste in mixed waste.
This project helped partner companies to gain unprecedented experience related to large-scale smart waste management deployment.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As the first steps, Sensoneo carried out a major amount of the preparatory work for the pilot projects and achieved important milestones in developing its new product. In preparation for the pilot project in Bratislava and Prague, Sensoneo signed partnership contracts. Sensoneo also conducted research on certifications and international specifics for wireless and hardware requirements to ensure its compliance with regulations.
A prototype of an advanced sensor with radar technology was developed and validated through hardware and software testing. Sensoneo advanced its SSv5 sensors with radar technology that detects biowaste in the bins to solve the problem of waste contamination in the containers.

Performance of Sensoneo solutions was tested in the real-world setting of the city of Bratislava. Sensoneo also conducted piloting activities in Prague, including a collection efficiency study and a waste collection plan development for new cyclic routes and frequencies.

Sensoneo team developed and aligned all the essential business and legal aspects to secure a smooth commercialization of newly developed functionalities of Sensoneo’s smart waste management system in key markets and market segments. Sensoneo now has a new marketing approach focused on targeted communications to targeted customers - communication and marketing customized (tailor-made) for specific customer groups.

Sensoneo monitored and analysed all potential risks that could prevent successful project implementation and followed the outlined mitigation strategies adjusting them where it was necessary. One of the risks that were not foreseen was an increase in personal cost due to a lot of unforeseen software and hardware development.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Currently, there are no existing smart waste management solutions in the market that can communicate via all widely available major IoT networks and is fully adaptable to any bin and waste type. In combination with the state-of-the-art data analytics system, Sensoneo’s value proposition can solve more waste management use cases and provide superior features and cost-saving to its end customers.

Sensoneo has progressed further beyond the state of the art of the waste management industry. It created an advanced sensor with radar technology that allows the detection of waste contamination in the bins. It completed a pilot of an integrated end-to-end smart waste management system in Bratislava and set up the Smart Route Planning system in Prague. As a result of the project, these cities have optimized their waste management systems making them more productive and cost-efficient. Consequently, the project also helps reduce the CO2 emissions and improve the environment and well-being of their citizens.

Experience in applying Sensoneo solutions to a complicated big city as Prague (with narrow historical streets and routes) and overcoming multiple challenges while creating an updated waste collection plan with better quality of waste management services, smarter vehicles usage and a smaller carbon footprint, can be adjusted and applied to many other cities in Europe. Sensoneo overcame a challenge of Drivers app not being set to work in cities with unique features by enhancing the technology and developing new functionality for the app to be more adjustable to any big and complex cities. And the successful achievement of the goal to improve efficiency by 20% from the original situation will serve as proof of Sensoneo’s value added to demonstrate to other cities for further expansion.

All experience gained during the project (and also outside) helped us to understand the specific requirements and circumstances needed for a successful deployment of a smart waste management solution – whether it concerns cities or waste collection companies. The experience with managing such a large-scale project in such a limited timeframe provided us an unprecedented advantage for our company and team, who is now experienced and best possibly prepared for any future deployments of similar kind and size. The high potential for similar business cases is not indicated only by the market forecasts but is already visible in our pipeline. The high amount of relevant leads from around the world proves not only the successful establishment of our brand as a smart waste management leader, but also confirms the great amount of work done in the marketing and business development area during the past two years. We are looking forward to fully leveraging the experience that we have managed to gain thanks to this project, which would be otherwise extremely hard to get. We hope to complete the series A investment soon to kick off all the activities planned to achieve our goals and plans.

Screenshots from the Sensoneo platform and navigation system and a bin with the sensor installed

One of the most common bin types in Bratislava with Sensoneo RFID tag installed

Installation and configuration of the Watchdog device

Distribution of monitored bins for glass waste across Bratislava

Installation and configuration of the Watchdog device 1

The SSv5 sensor on the inside

Types of RFID tags that have been examined to make the measurement the most accurate

Screenshots from the Sensoneo platform showing the fleet efficiency

Semi-underground waste bin on the inside with the Sensoneo sensor installed