When is it appropriate to measure the volume of residual municipal waste by means of a fixed antenna installed on the waste-collection truck? And which are the technical features of the RFID reader? Find out more in this article.

During door-to-door waste collection, the amount of undifferentiated waste produced and delivered by the user— which is used to calculate the variable part of the fee — ‘is measured directly by measuring the weight or indirectly by measuring the volume of waste delivered by each user’, as specified in Art. 6 of the Ministerial Decree of 20 April 2017 on the door-to-door waste collection fee. Indirect weighing, in particular, can be: 

a) carried out on board the vehicle carrying out the collection, through the identification of the container or bag;

b) carried out by a device in the collection operator's possession through the identification of the container or bag;

c) integrated in the container used for collection; d) carried out at a collection center."

 

Antennas on door-to-door waste-collection trucks: when should they be used?

Choosing a fixed reader (such as WhiteIP or BlackIP) on the truck to read RFID tags on bins or bags — thus identifying and counting the number of bins emptied or the number of bags presented by the user — is convenient in the following cases:

  • Automated collection with hoist

Mechanized waste collection with a truck-integrated lifter is implemented in the presence of large bins, such as 80/100-liter to 240/360-liter wheeled bins used for aggregate users (apartment buildings) and industries, or 1000/1500-liter street bins.

The workers  pulls the wheelie bin close to the truck, hooks it onto the truck and activates the bin tipper. The bin is lifted and the contents are emptied into the truck hopper. This process is compatible with pricing for door-to-door waste collection. To be lifted, the bin must be placed in a precise position so that it can be hooked onto the mechanical arm. The antenna reads the RFID tag when the bin is hooked onto the hoist. Both the tag and bin to which it is affixed always occupy a specific position, so the antenna, which is also fixed, reads the tag and returns accurate, reliable data.   

  • Presentation of the bag or bin before dumping it in the medium

For manual collection of bags or bins — 20/35/50-litre bins for door-to-door sorted waste collection — the worker must bring the bag or bin close to the reader, ‘present’ the tag for the antenna to read it, and then either throw the bag into the truck hopper or empty the bin into it. 

This procedure ensures that the specific tag was read at a specific time, and that the data obtained is reliable.

There are, however, some minor disadvantages to the process. Indeed, when using bags, workers do not generally pick up one bag at a time, but are inclined to pick up four or five bags at once to speed up the work, throwing all the bags into the truck at once. However, when the bags are thrown, the antenna cannot read all the RFID tags because the bags are moving quickly, they rotate, and their path can be blocked by environmental interference. 

This results in a loss of data from a minimum of 2–3% up to a maximum of 16% which is not due to the technology or malfunctioning antenna, but rather to the flawed working process that is not compatible with door-to-door waste collection. The only way around this problem is for the worker to collect one bag at a time — single grip — and present it to the antenna for tag reading. As far as bin emptying is concerned, the disadvantage is that after bringing the bin close to the antenna for door-to-door reading and emptying the contents into the truck hopper, the waste-collection worker has to return it to its place, thus prolonging the process.   

 

Technical specifications of the RFID reader

Municipalities and waste-collection companies that choose the truck-mounted fixed antenna to measure door-to-door residual municipal waste collection must bear in mind that some basic technical features are required for optimal reader operation.  The antenna must:

  • Either minimise hardware or be a stand-alone device

Waste collection trucks have an on-board navigation system connected to the vehicle, which allows companies to monitor the route traveled, the number of kilometers, and so on. This is a complex technology that is integrated inside a black box or on-board computer. The easiest thing to do is to connect the RFID antenna to the black box, considering it as an option to the navigation system.This solution is convenient because it minimises the hardware, avoiding the need for two separate devices, one for navigation and the other for the RFID reader. The antenna must therefore be easy to integrate with the devices already present on the truck.

In waste-collection trucks that either do not have a navigation system or it cannot be integrated with the RFID reader, the antenna must be a stand-alone device, that is, capable of operating autonomously and independently of other systems. 

  • Ensure data integration with the database

If a stand-alone antenna is used independently, the data it provides must be easily integrated with data from other systems, e.g. navigation systems. In this sense, the data must be normalised and easily integrated with the database.

  •  Ensure that the user can adjust the position, power and tuning

It is necessary to have the ability to adjust the position of the antenna, to set it to a certain power and, above all, tune it, adjusting the orientation of the return wave in order to improve accuracy and system performance, besides optimising readings. 

  •  Activate automatic reading for certain events

The antenna should also be capable of activating the reading automatically, associating it with certain actions, e.g. when the hoist is activated to raise the bin, or when the handbrake is pulled. When the truck is in motion, there is no need for the RFID reader to operate. Activating automatic reading when the handbrake is pulled, i.e. when the truck is stationary, simplifies the operator’s work and does not require any further operations to start reading.

  •  Ensure that workers can report anomalies via a service panel

During door-to-door waste collection, the worker must be able to provide information via an available service panel. The information the operator must be able to report includes anomalies observed during waste collection, e.g. damaged bins or bins with broken wheels, glass bottles in bags for plastic waste collection and other waste-sorting errors, wrong sorted waste-collection day (users presenting wet waste on paper collection days, etc.).

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