So, it's probably accepted in the industry that you have to understand and work with your Recycling room continuously to get a sensible cost and environmental impact.
One insight we have gained at Bintel during some of our projects is that different groups of Recycling room seem to celebrate different festivals. When the site is full of housing, and the containers for paper packaging are bursting at the seams, the bins in the schools' Recycling room gap empty.
Our businesses often have completely different seasonal variations than housing does. Is this an insight that your waste management company can take advantage of, and is our weekly pick-up all year round the right way to go?
Bintel is measuring in hundreds of Recycling room around the country, collecting data to help the industry get a little smarter. Many insights are obvious when you see the data, even though they may not have been previously articulated or put into practice. Seasonal load is one.
Seasonal load
We often see large variations between how a property charges its Recycling room over the year. Some peaks that are often talked about, and that we confirm in data reviews with our clients are:
- Christmas Holidays
- Easter
- Midsummer Eve
- Black Friday
Diving deep into these feasts, then provides individual variations in which fraction is most affected during the period in question.
Well, the above effect of celebrations doesn't actually apply everywhere.
Schools and companies
What does seasonality look like for businesses and schools?
Businesses are a diverse group, and can have both higher and lower waste generation than homes at peak times. Understanding this group, requires a longer exposition and a lot of data. Let's hold off on this group for a while and look at schools instead, an example that stands out.
When looking at a residual waste curve from a school, it is almost completely inverted compared to a curve from a Recycling room linked to housing. So, when you are at home with your children celebrating Christmas and your containers for paper packaging are filled to the brim with Lego boxes and wrapping paper, the situation is the opposite in the school's Recycling room. The same situation applies to other holidays.
So with this data-driven insight, you can choose where the waste management company wants to focus its resources next Christmas. Should you go to the pre-schools and schools, or can they perhaps wait a little longer for their emptying then. Do you have businesses that you know are linked to the off-season during the festive season? Perhaps the emptying could be postponed for them too.
Have you thought along these lines when creating subscriptions for schools and businesses?
Don't know what your company's load patterns look like over the year, and therefore can't take advantage of this? Then maybe it's time to find out. If for nothing else, then for the peace of Christmas.
Please contact us if you want more insights on data-driven waste collection.
From all of us to all of you, we wish you great data!
