Pittsburgh deploys more than 1,000 ‘smart’ trash cans
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Pittsburgh boasts the region’s smartest garbage cans.
The city has more than 1,000 “smart” trash cans equipped with sensors to gauge garbage volume and send a wireless signal to the city’s Department of Public Works when they’re full.
Pittsburgh hopes the new trash cans will cut in half the amount of time crews spend emptying cans and checking to see if they are full.
The city spent $670,000 in capital funds on new cans and new lids with sensors for old cans from Maryland-based Victor Stanley Co. The city has been placing the smart trash cans around the city for the past year or so.
DPW director Mike Gable proposed the idea in 2017, saying the technology would drastically cut down on hours crews spend checking to see if garbage cans are full. Pittsburgh has about 1,200 cans situated in public places, and Gable said the department spends about 100,000 hours each year dumping them.
“Based on our analysis, we expect that the smart litter cans will give us the ability to make process improvements that will reduce the amount of labor hours spent on emptying garbage cans by at least half,” said Matt Jacob, a project manager with the Department of Innovation and Performance. “As a result, DPW will be able to reallocate those resources to other tasks.”
The city is considering creating a DPW centralized litter can division and expanding weekend garbage can collection services in business districts. Officials are talking with employee union representatives about the idea, according to the Mayor’s Office.
“The smart cans allow DPW to offer better refuse services to Pittsburgh residents and neighborhood business districts, while freeing up our workers to do other work to keep the city tidy,” Gable said.