Prague is to pilot collecting waste via automated routes that can dynamically respond to changes in waste production and the city’s infrastructure. It will use technology from Slovakian firm Sensoneo.

Starting in spring 2021, the Czech capital will use dynamic waste collection is part of a project focused on demonstrating environmental and economic benefits resulting from large-scale deployment of Sensoneo’s technology.

The project is co-funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Innovation Council.

Thanks to efficient collection planning, Prague will be able to decrease systematically the environmental impact related to the waste collection process, increase efficiency of the currently available vehicles and employ flexibility in the case of unanticipated changes.

The Covid-19 pandemic is one such example, as it is profoundly changing traditional waste generation patterns and standard collection frequencies, and the current routes are not able to cope flexibly with these changes.

The project was implemented thanks to a grant from the European Innovation Council, which was awarded to Sensoneo in competition with more than 2000 technology companies from 38 countries. The grant, which was focused on projects supporting the objectives of the European Green Agreement, will make it possible to demonstrate the benefits of a wide deployment of Sensoneo smart waste management in the area of quality collection services, economics and environment.

“Cities around the world face challenges related to growing urbanism, increasing volume of waste and insufficient flexibility, which has been now even more highlighted with the on-going pandemic,” said Petr Hlubuček, deputy mayor of Prague. “Innovative technologies, which we will test during the pilot project, follow Prague’s strategy, focused on sustainability and a circular economy. I am convinced that this project will contribute to our plan of making Prague an active initiator of green technologies.”

The project includes collection efficiency analysis using Sensoneo’s method, based on processing all currently available data related to containers, vehicles and realised routes to identify weak points and opportunities for savings and improvement of the quality of service.

Prague will set-up new cycling routes and frequencies to increase the continuous efficiency and quality of service, combine the shortest possible routes, increase on-time collection, and better use vehicle capacity with the long-term goal to reduce the number of vehicles used during waste collection.

Collecting waste via automated routes will flexibly reflect daily requirements using Sensoneo’s navigation technology, which is tailor-made for the requirements of individual waste collection vehicles. This facilitates the employment of drivers without prior driving experience in particular districts or particular routes.

The project also includes the real-time monitoring of 550 containers for electronic waste with Sensoneo sensors to optimise waste collection, ensure sufficient free capacity for citizens and support recycling.

The operation part of the project will take one year.

“Digitisation is a huge topic in the field of waste management,” said Patrik Roman, CEO of Pražské Služby, a wholly owned subsidiary of the city of Prague. “It has been our long-term goal to identify and implement the tools that drive the improvement of the waste collection process and the quality of our service. This project upgrades the established systems of daily planning, real-time performance monitoring and evaluation. Planning waste collection routes for over 130 thousands containers in Prague is a complex and very demanding job and the successful outcome of this project can significantly help to improve it.”

Šárka Koháková, logistics manager at Asekol, added: “With this project, we will be able to equip most Weee containers across Prague with sensors and thus make the collection of discarded electronic equipment even more efficient. We expect that the ability to provide sufficient free capacity in containers will support the positive attitude of the citizens to the sorting of electrical waste.”

The preparation phase of the project has already started and the launch of the operational phase is scheduled for March 2021. The entire project, including the evaluation, will run until September 2022.

“We have chosen Prague as one of the key partners based on our experience with the underground containers monitoring project,” said Martin Basila, CEO of Sensoneo. “We perceive the Czech capital as one of the European leaders in the introduction of smart technologies and support of the transition to a circular economy. We believe that our tools bring great gains to the city’s daily operations. We are convinced that the evaluation will ultimately prove the tangible benefits to both the environment and the economy, reducing the carbon footprint and improving resource efficiency.”

Michal Fišer is CEO of Operátor ICT, a municipal joint-stock company that provides information and communication technologies services for Prague.

“A proactive approach and the use of innovative technologies is part of our urban DNA,” said Fišer. “Our company drives the testing and implementation of innovative technologies and we are doing our best to further utilise the data we collect from them. Smart waste collection is part of our Smart Prague 2030 strategy, which defines a zero-waste city as one of its priorities, and we believe this should be built on responsible and intelligent waste management.”

Smart Prague 2030 is a city strategy based on the introduction of smart technologies to make the city a better place for living.

Sensoneo combines in-house produced smart sensors that monitor waste in real time with tracking and monitoring equipment and software providing digital transformation and data-driven decision making, which results in transparent waste streams, optimisation of waste collection routes, frequencies and vehicle loads and the introduction of incentive programmes dedicated to decreasing waste production.

Sensoneo’s smart waste management has attracted cities and businesses around the world, and has been installed in more than 50 countries on five continents.