WasteExpo 2018: Breaking down data

The act of data collection and implementation is much like a gas gauge in a car: It gives visibility to something you cannot see. Speakers in the Keep it Simple: Breaking Down Data session at WasteExpo 2018, held April 23-26 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, discussed how data—big, small and standardized—can positively affect waste operations. From the roles data play in decision-making to financial impacts, speakers talked about the benefits of using data in everyday operations.

Speaker Emily Coven, founder of The Recyclist, a Truckee, California-based company that creates cloud-based services for solid waste program management, conveyed how fast data has come into play. She showed images of train schedules from 1905, 2005 and 2018. The schedules showed how train schedules did not change much for 100 years—basic information such as arrival and departure times were listed. In 2018, however, there are numerous options for accessing train schedules, including Google Maps, which list many different types of information beyond arrival and departure times.

“For 100 years nothing changed and in 10 years there was this incredible, rapid change,” Coven said.

She later added about data, “We’re sitting on a lot of savings and potential that we’re not getting yet.”

To put into perspective the potential of data in the waste industry, Coven offered the example of Apple’s iPhone: Prior to its launch in 2007, people did not realize all of the functions of a smartphone were achievable. “We didn’t know what to ask because we didn’t know it was possible,” Coven said.

The same is true about data in the waste sector.

Speaker A.J. Novak, chief revenue officer of OnePlus Systems, Northbrook, Illinois, shared real-life examples of data turning information into time- and dollar-saving realities. OnePlus Systems’ trademark is “Internet of Trash.” The company offers waste monitoring systems and software that it says bring cost-efficiency and process improvement to waste hauling.

On a micro level, Novak talked about how compactor monitoring at a grocery chain helped to decrease the frequency of pickups and increase the picked-up tonnage. The grocery chain’s stores operated on scheduled compactor pickups, averaging 6.3 tons per store for each store’s haul, which totaled 124 hauls per year, per store.

After implementing and using data to its advantage, the store chain increased pickup weights to 11 tons and decreased the frequency of pickups by 42 percent. This aligned services better to seasonal volumes, Novak said. Additionally, savings were realized on the labor side through redeploying personnel.

Another example shared by Novak focused on sensor technology. A company that collects and recycles used cooking oil from more than 100 restaurants on scheduled days, with volumes varying from low to over-filled. The company was concerned about customer satisfaction as well as product theft.

Data helped here by offering near real-time visibility of all its customers fill levels. In addition, data helped with just-in-time servicing and increased customer retention, Novak said. The information offered through data collection also eliminated emergency runs and improved resource management.

• Novak pointed to these solutions provided through data collection:
• Information enhances value to customers, increased customer retention and acquisition;
• Leverage technology to deliver economic value to customers;
• Deliver improved visibility to sustainability performance; and
• Improve and optimize resource management.

Speaker Greg Lettieri, CEO and co-founder of Recycle Track Systems (RTS), a full-service waste management and recycling company that uses data analytics to improve sustainability, said it isn’t as easy as flipping a switch to get a hauler on board with data collection and implementation. RTS, headquartered in New York, started three years ago.

“Companies want to do better when it comes to recycling,” Lettieri said. Data is one way to improve recycling rates.

Data also help to keep track of day-to-day operations. From tracking when a material is collected to when it is dropped off, data records. “It’s not only about providing a service; we know that truck got there and picked up food waste and dropped it off at the farm,” Lettieri said.

Jason Gates, CEO and co-founder of Compology, a San Francisco-based provider of image-based container monitoring system, said watching data progress in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors in the last few years “has been exciting to see.”

Compology is on its 12^th generation of its sensor.

Gates said, “We need a better way of measuring the quality of material at the source. The old way of doing that is not practical.”

WasteExpo 2018 is April 23-26 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.