Computer vision is the new frontline against kerbside contamination, reducing costs and fire risks. But what does it really mean for local government?
The spiralling cost and increasing danger posed by kerbside contamination have reached a tipping point, forcing local governments and processors to find solutions beyond traditional methods.
CleanBins is an artificial intelligence-powered waste monitoring solution developed by Melbourne company Alliance Software. Alex Green, Chief Executive Officer, and Naser Soueid, General Manager, give some insight into the new technology and its use.
The problem
How much is contamination costing councils and ratepayers and why can’t traditional bin tagging solve it?
Contamination creates three major financial drains: increased gate fees, cost of decontamination, and a loss of material value. Heavily contaminated loads often go straight to landfill, where disposal costs can be more than three times higher per tonne. Processors must hire staff and invest in mechanical separation just to make a saleable product. Uncontaminated compost is a significantly more valuable commodity. Demand-based analysis conducted using the CSIRO Adopt toolkit demonstrates that avoiding visual levels of contamination in compost increases the material value and adoption by 10 fold.
Traditional bin tagging fails at scale due to logistical complexity and intense labour demands. CleanBins overcomes this by monitoring all bins continuously, directing efforts only to the bins and hopper loads that matter.
What are the risks and costs of hazardous items being incorrectly disposed of in kerbside bins?
An enormous and increasing safety risk comes from hazardous items (like batteries) incorrectly disposed of in kerbside bins, causing millions of dollars of fire damage in trucks and facilities, increasing insurance premiums, and risking worker harm. CleanBins can detect hazardous and/or ignition events as soon as they occur, providing timely warnings and an audit trail to make collection safer. Undetected hazardous material also risks massive cleanup costs and reputational damage.
Does it work?
What is AICD (Artificial Intelligence Contamination Detection), and how do you ensure accuracy while processing waste in real-time on a moving vehicle?
CleanBins uses AICD, relying on computer vision that has advanced significantly over the past five years. The platform ensures accuracy on moving vehicles through internal tools that perform statistical analysis, identify failure cases, and rapidly deploy fixes. The system evolves and improves every collection.
With deployment in six councils, what results are you seeing?
The biggest insight is that the majority of contamination is a result of rare, but heavily contaminated bins, often contributed by individual residences. This strongly supports the case for regular, targeted interventions, which the technology provides the auditability to execute effectively.
Will AICD replace manual audits?
While CleanBins is incredible for a huge volume of timely, accurate and actionable data, it is a vision-based technology. For streams such as general waste, where goods are commonly presented in plastic bags, debagging and manual audits will still be the gold standard.
Implementation
What would a trial in my local government area look like?
An initial trial involves equipping a small number of trucks (one to three) to collect benchmarking data on contamination levels. The council then performs a targeted intervention in that area, using follow-up data analysis to directly measure the intervention’s effectiveness. A trial running six to nine months allows a council to conduct multiple experiments and build a case for a full rollout.
What’s required of my fleet, contractor or drivers? What equipment goes on the truck?
The hardware, a street-facing and hopper-facing camera with a small server box, is completely independent of existing truck systems, requiring only a power connection. Fit out takes about four hours.
How do council staff use the platform day-to-day?
Verification: Human verification of gross contamination.
Intervention: Efficient generation and dispatch of residence communication, integrating with existing CRM systems.
Reporting: Providing trends, behaviours, and intervention performance data.
Return on investment (ROI) and action
How do councils measure ROI – is it contamination reduction, enforcement savings, or regulatory compliance?
All the above! CleanBins expands what councils can do while reducing the cost and effort of existing activities. The biggest driver is regulation; more effective, targeted interventions reduce the frequency of penalties, excess disposal costs, and the higher costs associated with enforcement.
The data distils tens of thousands of collections into actionable insights. How do councils use this to comply with evolving state and federal waste regulations?
CleanBins has two elements – the first is the raw data collection, and the second is the creation of rules to determine what those ‘actionable events’ are. As state and federal regulations change and councils with CleanBins become aware of what future regulations will be, they can proactively set up rules to understand how those new regulations will affect them and take real measurements on the ground even before the regulations come into effect.
For more information, visit: www.cleanbins.com.au
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