How tech is helping Atlanta take better care of its trash

*This article originally ran in RouteFifty. We’ve hosted it here to celebrate Atlanta, a Routeware customer.*

In Atlanta, the city’s Department of Public Works is turning to tech to improve its waste management services, helping to address staff and resource shortages and better serve residents.

In 2021, coming out of the pandemic, the city realized it was starting to fall short on its ability to deliver public works services like collecting trash, recycling and yard trimming waste, said Moses Tejuoso, director of public works for the Department of Public Works in Atlanta, Georgia.

With a dwindling workforce of operators that had a commercial driver’s license, for instance, officials had to reconsider how to allocate its staff and resources to maintain service to the 100,000 households the Public Works Department serves on a weekly basis.

To improve the efficiency of its waste management fleet, the department needed a modernized solution that could provide granular insights like a drivers route, if they completed their scheduled stops and who was operating which equipment at the time, Tejuoso said. Such insights can help officials avoid overworking staff and position them to more efficiently allocate scarce resources and equipment.

Since 2023, the department has been using a platform from Routeware, a software provider for waste and recycling fleets. With the web-based portal, operators use in-cab tablets to follow their assignments and routes for the day, and they can communicate with supervisors about obstacles like road closures or flooding and renavigate to continue service, he explained.

Since deploying the Routeware solution, the department has reduced its reliance on paper-based processes like using physical maps to design routes or to record driver’s trips, he added. It’s also reforming the agency’s hiring environment, as hiring managers can ask more questions about applicants’ experience with digital navigation tools, like geographic information systems, amid the department’s movement toward digitization.

The Routeware system helps inform leaders how to optimize drivers’ routes, increase fuel efficiency of its fleet and creates a data repository for external partners, Tejuoso said. With Routeware, for instance, officials can schedule services more efficiently, like determining how often drivers need to be deployed for yard-trimming collection.

Eventually, Tejuoso hopes to leverage the technology as a tool to impact residents’ trash and recycling behaviors. For instance, he said officials would like to incorporate artificial intelligence-enabled cameras onto fleet vehicles that can identify if there are hazardous materials in a waste bin like lithium batteries, which can catch fire while in transit, putting drivers in danger.

The Department of Public Works could then send that household a notification, like a postcard, that educates them about proper disposal to ensure residents and the city are disposing of waste safely and appropriately, Tejuoso explained.