RFID Keeps The Lid On Garbage Collection Costs

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies magazine

Faced with mounting budget deficits, communities across the United States have looked for innovative ways to cut costs, and technology often plays a prominent role in these efforts. The city of Hattiesburg, MS, has slashed $400,000 from its public works budget by automating its garbage collection process and utilizing RFID to track collection routes.

Hattiesburg is the fourth-largest city in Mississippi. Prior to 2010, trash and yard waste collection were completely manual; employees had to lift the cans into the trucks by hand, and keeping track of which routes had been completed was difficult. If residents called and claimed the truck had missed their house, there was no way for managers to determine whether the trucks had made every stop on the route or if the customers had just failed to get their cans to the curb on time. There were also frequent workmen's compensation claims and injuries associated with lifting the cans.