Tech-Led Waste Solution Cuts Collections By 92 Per Cent In Folkestone

Bigbelly stations have reduced Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s waste collections by 92 per cent and beaten back the birds following the council’s decision to roll out 12 Bigbelly units across the district’s busy Lower Leas Coastal Park area. 

The rollout saw 12 high capacity stations replace 24 traditional bins, the result of which has prolonged collections by up to two weeks for some of the units as a result of Bigbelly’s solar-powered compaction technology, which increases the capacity of each unit by up to eight times. When 80 per cent full, each station sends an alert to a cloud-based platform notifying the operations team that the station requires emptying. 

Prior to the install, the council was making 1,825 individual collections from 24 traditional bins during the winter months. Now, with only 12 Bigbelly stations, the council has reduced that number of collections to only 150 during October 2018 to February 2019.  

Bigbelly is now expected to dramatically reduce collections during the summer months across the Lower Leas Coastal Park, which attracts over 1,000,0000 people during the summer months across its children’s play areas and popular BBQ spots.  

Andrew Rush, Corporate Contracts Officer at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, comments: “The results are extremely encouraging and we now look forward to establishing the technology’s impact during summer. High footfall throughout the park had previously made access difficult for collection crews responsible for emptying traditional bins multiple times a day, in order to meet demands and prevent overfilling. Following the success of Bigbelly, we now expect the pressure to be significantly reduced as collection teams no longer need to make empties anywhere near as often.” 

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is now set to continue integrating Bigbelly within its waste collection strategy and is considering widening its coverage over the next 12 months. 

Emmett Reidy, Business Development Director at Egbert Taylor, Bigbelly’s UK distributor, adds: “Optimising waste collection via smart solutions such as Bigbelly, particularly in busy seasonal periods, enables local authorities to be much more agile with their resources and prevent time being wasted on inspecting and emptying bins. Our leading technologies provide collection teams with real-time visibility of the fill status of each station, from any location, so waste collections can be better-planned and unnecessary collections avoided. Over the last 10 years Bigbelly has become a key waste collection tool amongst local authorities across the UK, delivering return on investment in every location they are installed.” 

For more information on Bigbelly visit www.egberttaylor.com.