Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Smart Trash, Smart Campus

What better place to implement smart waste management than a school? Cities and education facilities across the U.S. are enjoying the many benefits of intelligent litter and recycling receptacles.

Individuals charged with waste control are now able to employ a network of connected receptacles and software that enables collection, planning and routing that is substantially more efficient. Smart enough, in fact, to save an estimated 20 to 40 percent on litter and recycling collection expenses. Knowing that a large university can easily generate 9 million pounds of waste in a year, the savings potential is hard to ignore.

Traditional static systems allow for litter receptacles to overfill before they are collected — an aesthetic and olfactory nuisance, for sure — while others that sit empty are collected anyway. Smart litter receptacles provide a new approach, allowing you to allocate resources only where and when they are needed, not only saving time, but also decreasing fuel costs, carbon footprints and unsightly waste overflows.

Using GPS and other sensors, smart receptacles can monitor and transmit fill level, temperature, weight, location and more to cloud-based portals. And they work with any type of waste (general trash, mixed recyclables, paper, glass, metals, etc.) Monitoring containers provides a holistic view of an area’s trash and recycling status while improving landfill diversion rates.

To maintain aesthetics, some sensors can be hidden within a litter receptacle or recycling station, which provides the added benefit of preventing tampering. Along with smart design, factors such as durability are important to consider in choosing a smart waste management system. Sensors should also be built to remain reliable and accurate even in harsh environmental conditions to meet the challenges receptacles face in high-use environments such as a campus.

Learn what smart waste management can do for your bottom line.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

About the Author

Emma Skalka is vice president of Sales and Marketing at Victor Stanley in Dunkirk, MD.

Featured

  • Texas A&M Opens First Building at Fort Worth Campus, Breaks Ground on Research Facility

    The Texas A&M University System marked a major milestone in the development of its Fort Worth campus by opening its first completed academic building and breaking ground on a second facility designed to expand research and industry collaboration.

  • Carnegie Mellon University Receives $3B Gift to Launch New Campus

    Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., recently announced that it has received $3 billion—the largest individual gift in higher education history—from Citadel CEO and founder Ken Griffin, according to a news release.

  • Esports are Growing in Popularity

    Video games and esports are a popular social hobby, and it’s one that’s accessible to a wide variety of physical ability levels. Some esport student-athletes have started to earn scholarship opportunities, and high schools are beginning to form teams equipped with the same degree of resources as their physical sports teams. However, the two have very different needs.

  • UPenn Announces Completion of New Veterinary Education Facility

    The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Penn., recently finished construction on an 11,800-square-foot veterinary education building, according to a news release. The Gail P. Riepe Center for Advanced Veterinary Education is the first dedicated classroom facility at the New Bolton Center, a large-animal hospital and campus about 35 miles west of the campus proper.