SMARTER DISCARDS PILOT STUDY

SMARTER DISCARDS PILOT STUDY. On May 23, 2013 the City of Dubuque began the first phase of its Smarter Discards Pilot Study and began collecting anonymous data on its curbside collection of trash and recycling. The purpose of the 12-month study was to review Dubuque’s curbside trash and recycling services and use the information collected to make decisions regarding policies, staffing, and equipment issues related to waste management and curbside collection.

The first phase of the study involved the collection of aggregated, anonymous data from two collection routes within the city. Data on the frequency of set outs along with the total weights of trash and recyclables collected on the routes was reported. No personal information or individual household set out weights were collected.

Customers on these routes received a notification. Over the next few weeks, residents may notice City representatives installing remote frequency identification device (RFID) “tags” on recycling containers and City-owned tipper carts on these two routes. These installs include the use of hand- held RFID data collection devices to record the tag ID. Tags were not attached to containers not owned by the City.

The City solicited up to 400 volunteers to authorize the collection of their household’s weekly set out data (trash, recycling, and organics weights) in anonymous form for the second phase of the study. As an incentive, volunteers received an “organics recycling tool kit” as well as access to website/portal that included diversion tips, household goal challenges, available incentives, visualization of data over a period of time, insights into household discard patterns, and analytics that compare discard generation with other households with similar profiles. There was no cost to volunteers to participate in this research. To be eligible, volunteers needed to be City residential curbside collection customers.

Participants were able to access their data through an online portal/website under development with IBM Research. The portal/website include analytics that offered visual data of performance changes, insights into discard patterns, and comparisons to other area households’ consumption rates.

The “organics recycling tool kit” included a one-and-a-half gallon “kitchen-catcher” container for food scraps, a box of compostable kitchen-catcher bags, a sheet of five yard debris decals, and one paper yard debris bag.

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Source:

News Release. City of Dubuque, May 23, 2013. Online: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3610