Great potential for improvement
The housing company Helsingborgshem is taking action against poor sorting and skyrocketing waste costs. At a time when housing companies are cutting corners to keep rents down, waste costs have emerged as an important cost item to address.
Helsingborgshem's figures correspond well with what Bintel experiences around the country:
Annual waste cost 27 MSEK
Of which residual waste cost 15 SEK
Sorting rate 47% (Share of sorted waste)
Here, as in the rest of Sweden, there is a lot of money to be saved if you actively work with your waste management. Inge Gustavsson, Housing Manager at Helsingborgshem, puts the starting point as follows:
"Among other things, we see that the amount of residual waste stands out. Our tenants sort about 47 percent, while the rest ends up in the residual waste. Based on recommendations from the industry organization Swedish Waste Management Association , we see that at least 64 percent could be sorted. So there is great potential for improvement here."
Investing in digitalization
In 2023, Helsingborgshem has made a digitalization initiative, where data collection from environmental houses linked to multi-family housing is carried out. Data-driven insights will then, step by step, result in a more efficient and environmentally friendly waste management.
In the first step of Bintel's process, subscriptions have been aligned with actual needs. At the baseline measurement, it was quite clear what was not working in the environmental rooms - an insight that is impossible to make without relevant data. Inge Gustavsson again:
- The first measurement gave us a starting point and showed that the plastic and cardboard bins were generally undersized. This information helps us to adjust the size of the bins and the emptying schedule. We now have a subscription that better matches how our tenants sort their waste. In addition, we get valuable insights into what works in the environmental rooms.
The effects we measure at Helsingborgshem, when adjusting the subscriptions, are typical of this first step:
11% better sorting rate
16% less residual waste
Now Helsingborgshem is equipped to handle better sorting, and can move into the next phase: Behavioral change. Helsingborgshem's team will conduct various experiments in the 10 rooms. By collecting data before and after their interventions, the effect of the interventions will be made clear. A learning organization is created, which can scale up successful trials and end less successful ones.
The project is a collaboration between Helsingborgshem, the waste management company NSR and Bintel.
Follow this ambitious team, new industry knowledge will be built here!
Bintel Insights™ is the center for digital insight-driven innovation. waste management
We want to streamline waste management thereby increasing circularity and improving resource utilisation.
