With radar technology: digital garbage cans report their fill level in Stralsund

The Hanseatic city of Stralsund is combating overflowing public litter bins by using radar technology from a Danish company. The garbage cans report their fill level to the municipal staff via an internet connection. The waste garbage cans can thus be emptied in a more targeted manner.

The city of Stralsund has equipped a total of 365 waste paper bins in the districts of Devin and Adershof as well as five compactor waste garbage cans with radar sensors to detect the fill level. The city itself remains silent about the sensors used, referring only to a Danish company. These are presumably radar sensors from the company Maacks. The Danish company has several radar-based sensors for waste garbage cans, called BrainyBins, in its range and also supplies the necessary server, cloud and software technology.

The sensors installed in the garbage can lid or under the top cover use radar to measure the fill level as a percentage. The measurement is contactless and therefore clean. Some of the sensors on offer can also detect the temperature of the waste and tipped garbage cans.

Long durability and runtime

The sensors are housed in a sturdy, dustproof and waterproof plastic casing and should be able to report the fill level for up to eight years until the battery needs to be replaced. In Stralsund, the fill level is checked every six hours.

The data is stored on a server and graphically processed so that the fill level is displayed in the colors green, yellow and red. Green means the garbage can is empty, yellow means it is half full and red means it will soon be full. The system also provides a forecast of when a garbage can is likely to be full. The system uses information on past fill levels to calculate this.

The municipal employees can see the locations of the garbage cans on a map with the respective fill levels and plan appropriate routes for waste collection. Previously, all garbage cans were approached regardless of whether they were full or not. Now the tours can be planned in a targeted manner, making collection more efficient. The waste disposal vehicle then only has to drive to the garbage cans that are actually full. This saves "time, money and fuel", according to the city of Stralsund. For example, the CO₂ emissions of the waste disposal vehicles could be reduced.

This is currently still a test project that is set to run until December 2025. The city will then decide whether to equip more municipal waste garbage cans with the technology.

(olb)