Customer Story

City of Roseville, California

Roseville, California photo

Challenge

The City of Roseville partners with SmartCity to reduce food waste contamination and increase diversion from landfills. Coffee grounds, moldy fruit, and expired cheese are just a few examples of the food waste and other organics that end up in people’s trash and in landfills. Landfills are a hotbed for methane, a greenhouse gas significantly more potent than carbon dioxide, and it is exacerbated by the decomposition of food waste and other organics that could otherwise be recycled or composted.

In 2016, the state of California enacted legislation (SB 1383) mandating commercial organics recycling in an effort to divert 75% of organic waste from landfills by 2025. To comply with state law, the City of Roseville created a commercial organics collection program to divert food waste from landfills to a composting facility and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since implementing the program, the City has dealt with commercial entities disposing non-food waste in organic bins, contaminating the bins’ contents. Contaminated organic bins must be sent to the landfill, effectively negating the potential greenhouse gas reduction intended by SB 1383.

Solution

Beginning in 2021, the City of Roseville partnered with SmartCity to install SmartCity’s proprietary technology platform, SmartCity – a technology suite that helps city governments run more efficient, effective, and sustainable operations – in the City’s waste collection vehicles.

With SmartCity, we more effectively manage food waste collection for our 70-75 daily commercial customers through a digitized route management platform.

Shelly Tilley,  refuse and stormwater utility manager

“As a result, we reduced contamination because drivers used the platform to document contaminated bins and dumpsters, helping us identify customers with frequently contaminated containers and educate them on which materials can and can’t be composted.” This helped increase the tonnage of organics waste sent to Roseville’s composting facility significantly.

In partnership with SmartCity, the City of Roseville diverted 1,819 tons of food waste from the landfill to the composting facility over the course of 2021. This led to 1,115 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) emissions avoided by preventing decomposition at the landfill and the carbon sink created by the application of compost to soils. This is equivalent to removing 240 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles from the road or 140 homes’ energy use for one year.

  • Garbage Truck Icon

    75

    daily commercial customers

  • 1,819

    tons of food waste

    diverted from landfills to the composting facility in 2021

  • Icon of a CO2 Cloud

    1,115

    metric tons CO2e avoided

    (equivalent to removing 240 passenger vehicles off the road each year)

Powered by AWS

SmartCity is a software-as-aservice (SaaS) offering that is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). SmartCity leverages the AWS Cloud and other tools to empower cities to use cloud-based technology and machine learning to support their vision for a smarter city.

To learn more about how Routeware can help your city maximize resources, boost resident satisfaction, and become more proactive, visit: routeware.com/routeware-smartcity/

NOTE: In September 2024, Routeware acquired the RUBICONSmartCity software platform, formerly part of Rubicon and later Wastech. The integration of the RUBICONSmartCity solution into Routeware’s formidable suite of services will provide additional support for municipal fleet operations across waste collection, street sweeping, and snow removal.