Improving organic waste recycling in our communities
Dropoff points at convenience centers offer a cost-effective alternative to curbside pickup. However, these are not without their own challenges, especially when it comes to ease of access for residents. Your nearest center could be a sizable journey away which, considering the cargo, may be undesirable.
Bringing outdoor drop off points closer to the hearts of communities will certainly increase accessibility but it presents new challenges in the form of contamination, hygiene risks, pests and the potential for antisocial behavior.
To further understand the use of drop-off points, metroSTOR provided cart enclosures for two pilot programs run by ReLondon in the UK. Crucially, these took place in areas with no dedicated curbside pickup – a large multi-family complex with 500 households, as well as on inner-city streets containing apartments situated above businesses.
Encouragingly, over 13 months the use of foot-operated enclosed carts – as much as municipalities with curbside pickup. Separate on-street trials also demonstrated that inner-city locations are at higher risk of contamination and illegal dumping. Further trials with RFID operated carts completely eliminated both of these factors, however, the need for a dedicated access card saw interaction drop by 25%.
The trials told us that given an accessible and hygienic system, residents would use the units, greatly improving the community. The answer was clear – a combination of metroSTOR organics cart enclosures and reliable, controlled closed access is the key to making it as easy for residents as possible.
We’ve developed our organics cart enclosures with seamless access in mind. The metroSTOR F-series carts can be supplied with a code lock, Bluetooth Low Energy access control or a combination of the two.
metroKEY, our mobile app that offers residents Bluetooth-enabled access to our organics cart enclosures, gives you sustainability in your pocket. The app contains vital information for residents on accepted materials, live maps for locating nearby alternative drop off sites and a reporting feature. Scheme admins can customize the user interface and access data for each unit, pinpointing any potential misuse or service requirements.
Using solutions like keypad access and metroKEY, along with metroSTOR organics cart enclosures reduces costs, curbs food waste diversion from landfill and minimizes contamination. Ultimately, this leads to cleaner neighborhoods, lower GHG emissions, and better communities for all.
