Derby’s ThinkBin Trial - An innovative solution to a common problem

Derby City Council approached Broxap to see if we could find a cost-effective solution to their bin problem. After years of frequent complaints from the public about street bins overflowing with litter, they agreed to trial an excellent piece of Broxap technology.

The ThinkBin Solution

Broxap’s smart waste-management solution, ThinkBin, revolves around the nPod fill-level sensor. You can have the nPod installed in any litter or recycling bin, or retro-fitted to your existing bins. With an average battery lifetime of ten years and a high-impact casing, we make these inconspicuous, robustly-made sensors to last with very little maintenance required. The council chose the nPod Sensors mainly for their monitor and report features; reliable, dual-ultrasonic sensing allows the nPod to provide timely warnings when litter bins start to become full. The nPod sensor collects data and transmits it securely to the netBin HUB. Here you can plan collection routes efficiently before issuing them to collectors’ smartphones, tablets, or PCs. This ensures no journey is wasted.

Smart Waste Management Trial

Derby City Council set about planning this ground-breaking trial; under Broxap’s support they selected 25 litter bins from across the city using the extensive history of complaints and known problem areas. Broxap used its experienced install team to deploy and setup the nPods on behalf of Derby City Council. We also ran a short introduction session on the netBin HUB to ensure all users could benefit from the powerful insights the technology provides.

“Generated alerts for any bin which was over 80% full for one hour”

A stand-out feature for the council was Automatic Monitoring of bins which allowed the council to take action before any complaints were made. We set the units to report any bin which was over 80% full for one hour. They were also able to set up other alerts using inbuilt tilt sensors to give warnings of bins that had fallen over. Furthermore, an integral thermometer could be used for fire detection. Over a four-month period, nPod Sensors monitored the litter bins of Derby. As soon as the council began to utilise the data it was a resounding success! In fact, Samantha Kelly from Derby City Council said, “once we installed the sensors we didn’t have any complaints of overflowing bins”. There are many other features to the ThinkBin trial which the council found beneficial; the data helped identify illegal use of the bins by local businesses.

“ThinkBin reduced public complaints by 100%”

The nPod trial was so successful due to the highly effective Bin Management System. Derby City Council were able to reduce costs and collection times by using the intelligent route planning automatically provided by the netBin HUB.

What next?

Since the trial’s conclusion Samantha Kelly reported that “as soon as we removed the sensors, the complaints started right back up again”. Derby City Council's forward-thinking approach to this problem saved unnecessary costs and reduced environmental impact to the public. Derby City Council were so impressed with the technology they are now looking into its implementation as a permanent feature across the city. They said, “Our resources have been stretched over the last few years and we do struggle with overflowing bins. We like the sensors and think these will be a really useful tool.”

“Derby have proven that using our ThinkBin solution is a greatly cost-effective solution”

All of these features mean the ThinkBin nPod sensor is an excellent investment. We at Broxap are proud to see the UK’s streets are getting smarter.  

Want to learn more about the nPod Sensor? Find out all about it here.

If you're interested in ThinkBin technology explore our full range of smart waste-management products.