Insightz

Top 5 Benefits of Dumpster Camera Technology

There are three major problems our customers tell us keep them up at night: how to cut waste costs, how to hold haulers accountable when service requirements aren’t met, and how to implement new sustainability goals, whether they’re issued from municipalities or their own corporate headquarters. In 2020, we implemented Compology camera technology in all our dumpsters to address these issues. Here are the top five benefits of using dumpster camera technology.

Reduce waste spending

Companies that use dumpster cameras report saving as much as 30% compared to pre-camera service levels. This reduction primarily comes from cutting down on unnecessary pickups and saving on recycling contamination fees. Dumpster camera technology helps us determine the real waste volume a client is producing (rather than just a guesstimation). From there, we can right-size their service level and keep them from overspending on pickups.

Compology dumpster camera technology is also able to detect more than six common types of contamination with 98% accuracy. Customers can more easily identify and remediate recycling contamination before they’re charged hefty fees.

Reduce pickups

It’s no surprise to anyone reading this, but 2020 brought huge shifts to commercial waste service levels. Businesses may have been closed during the shutdown, but their waste contracts were still in effect. During unexpected business disruptions—whether it’s a global pandemic or a natural disaster—dumpster camera technology can remove some of the guesswork from waste volume estimates.

One of our customers saw their waste output drop by nearly half during the height of the pandemic. Yet they were still paying for near-empty pickups. Camera technology enabled us to get a closer look at their actual waste volume and adjust their service schedule. Not only do customers save money, but fewer pickups means less time on the road for trucks. This leads to a smaller carbon footprint.

Support Zero Waste

Companies and municipalities around the globe are committing to Zero Waste goals. Microsoft, for example, set the ambitious goal of diverting 90% of their waste away from landfills and incineration and producing 100% recyclable devices and packaging by 2030. They’ve also committed to building infrastructure to recycle everything from electronics to food waste.

What does that mean for property owners and managers? More waste awareness. Dumpster cameras help cut down on unnecessary pickups and truck travel, but it goes beyond that carbon footprint. With camera tech, you can analyze the types of waste produced and identify new recycling opportunities. You can also prevent recycling contamination in existing waste streams.

Reduce contamination

Compology dumpster cameras are up to 98% accurate at identifying the six most common contamination categories. And their proprietary artificial intelligence system is constantly learning to help improve contamination identification.

In the past, you had to manually check the recycling bin and hope everyone was following the recycling rules. Needless to say, contamination is a major problem at most facilities. Dumpster camera technology removes the guesswork, so your recycling ends up recycled and not diverted to a landfill because of contamination. Not to mention saving the associated fees.  

Verify your waste service

On the subject of manual verification, how do you know whether a garbage pickup happened when no one is on site? For many of our customers, the shutdown meant no one was on site for days or weeks at a time. Trash was piling up for some of these businesses either because scheduled pickups weren’t being made or because there was a huge increase in waste production (for example, take-out restaurants and apartment buildings).

When no one is available to confirm scheduled service, dumpster camera technology can track when (or if) a pickup occurs. This information can hold haulers accountable. The data can also support billing or service disputes. Over time, Compology’s AI system can learn the facility’s service schedule and dumpster volume so it can alert managers to potential overflow situations.

Since implementing dumpster camera technology, we’ve seen promising results with right-sizing our customers’ service levels. To learn more, or to find out how to get ZTERS dumpsters at your facilities, give us a call.