The 'Great Ocean' road to smarter waste management

Following a 12-month trial and tender process, Solar Bins Australia has deployed its BigBelly Solar smart waste management solution along the Great Ocean Road for Surf Coast Shire in Lorne, Victoria. The successful deployment is set to become the foundation for many other communities to see the benefits of smarter waste management.

For key tourist destination such as Lorne, the Great Ocean Road and the Surf Coast region, the eyesore of overflowing bins cannot be measured by financial impact alone. But it’s not always the public that causes this mess. In the case of Surf Coast Shire, the wild sulphur-crested cockatoos have become a nuisance, particularly in coastal towns. Cockatoos can often become lazy due to the public and tourists feeding them and have been diving into rubbish bins to forage for food, spreading litter in the process.

Surf Coast Shire began trialling two BigBelly Solar Compactors with Solar Bins Australia back in 2015, which resulted in improved collection efficiency, improved waste data and a reduction in waste complaints from the public. After the trial, reports from the public, shopkeepers and council indicated that the BigBelly stations, at the front of a fish and chip shop in Lorne, eradicated the problem of rubbish overflows and cockatoo ‘deep dives’.

“The release of tenders for smart waste management systems such as BigBelly, as well as rubbish bin fill level device Smartsensor, highlights the evolving landscape in waste management, the growing adoption of smart cities and the ever-increasing integration of smart waste technology here in Australia,” said Silke Stolze, director of operations, Solar Bins Australia.

The deployment at Surf Coast Shire is said to be the largest multitown BigBelly deployment for a council in Victoria. Three regional towns have now been linked with the technology in order to provide deep insights to waste collection teams. With a minimum of a 46.8 km round trip between these three towns, it means a vehicle is travelling more than 150 times a year to empty bins, causing environmental damage, pollution and impact to the community’s roads — an impact that can now be reduced significantly.

Solar Bins Australia has also entered a partnership with Greenfleet resulting in the 64.32 t CO₂e of emissions generated from Surf Coast Shire’s waste collection being offset through the planting of native trees in biodiverse forests.

The stations have an added benefit for the Community Information Centre as they are used to display tourist details for visitors.

“With the recent release of a handful of ‘smart waste’ tenders by Australian councils, the evolution of smart waste management is moving from proof-of-concept phases to pivotal foundations of municipal waste management networks,” said Stolze. “We believe that this engagement with our technology will drive efficiency in waste management operations and help communities to become smarter and cleaner.”