The Tools Of Routeware City
We are excited to announce Routeware City, a community engagement platform that allows you to test out our tools for yourself!
Nearly 15 million people have used our Community tools to better their recycling behaviour.
Consider this a showcase and explanation of all tools involved in Routeware City, and even those that aren’t.
If you’re looking for a companion guide for how to utilize the tool, click here.
If you’re looking for a clear value proposition of how the tool can help your city, click here.
Note: below we will walk through the Collection Calendar, Waste Wizard, Bulky Pickup, and Waste Sorting Game tools, plus other tools like Curbside Audit, Appointment Scheduler, Online Payment, Multi-Community Waste Wizard, and Procurement Simplified.
Then we’ll get into other features like Need Help, plus our Web Widget, Mobile App & Service Alerts, and – if you’re still not sold – Resident Reviews.
If you have something specific in mind, please feel free to use the anchor links above, scroll to that section, or search utilizing cmd/ctrl+F.
Collection Calendar
Allow your residents to view personalized collection dates and information, set reminders for themselves, integrate the calendar into their own, see their bulky pickups, and more!
For the purpose of keeping our tool simple, we only included one loadable address – for you, the address bar will be searchable for every address in your service area.
“Our print calendar doesn’t really tell residents that their collection is going to be pushed back one day after a holiday unless they read the tiny paragraph at the top. But nobody reads the paragraph.”
“Using Routeware’s analytics is the first thing we’ve ever had that can really demonstrate the value of that expense. And our council loved seeing that. Although they loved Routeware and the service even before they knew about the numbers and the analytics.”
“A lot of our residents don’t want weekly reminders, they don’t need weekly reminders (because) they’ve been putting their trash carts out on the curb on the same day for thirty years. But they would like to know if their collection schedule is delayed, and Routeware enables us to communicate with these residents as well—so that’s one feature we really like. So if trash collection is delayed for snow, for example, we can message that out immediately to our residents.”- Jamie Shockley, Strategic Communications Analyst at the City of Olathe.
We’ve reminded people about their collection days over 1.35 billion times, helping move over 90 million tons of material through the value chain more efficiently and effectively.
When people can download a recycling calendar at home, their waste services providers don’t have to mail them — reducing the CO2 generated by delivery by more than 88 tons per year.
The estimated savings of not distributing calendars “$400,000 per year, the equivalent of 200 trees!” – Philippa Wagner, Green Cart Implementation Leader, City of Calgary.
The City of Cary, NC won Carolina Recycling Association’s 2020 Annual Recycling Award and replaced 50,000 printed materials with digital, saving over $20,000 a year.
The City of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada uses the app to notify people about street sweepings, outages for electricity and water, and other service alerts, with plans to communicate information about snow routes & more in the future, too.
Waste Wizard
Provide your residents with detailed disposal information for every item you want. Allow them to suggest their own items when they can’t find it, enable our predictive text to suggest alternatives for misspellings and items known by other names.
Plus, customize your featured search items to show the 4 items you want to focus your educational efforts the most on, depending on data, season, and more!
The tool assists in the proper disposal of hazardous waste, e-waste, and more, all while reducing contamination rates of the more common disposal streams.
Nashville, TN adopted the Waste Wizard in March 2021. “By the middle of the summer of 2021, we had reduced a 46 percent contamination rate down to 28.6%.” – Jenn Harrman, Zero Waste Program Manager for Metro Nashville Services.
In Abbotsford, British Columbia – well, we’ll let them take it away.
“By using tools like the city’s Waste Wizard and learning how to properly sort items and which items aren’t acceptable, residents can become better recyclers, which will in turn help to reduce our contamination rates and create a safer and more sustainable city.” — Ross Siemens, Mayor of Abbotsford.
In Sunnyvale, CA, dirty, smelly carts were a barrier to community participation in the organics program and Recycling confusion and frustration with new programs was mounting.
Enter the Waste Wizard. Utilizing the tool, residents were better able to understand what goes where.
Cleaner recyclables and clearer communication led to lower contamination rates, helping the city march towards meeting their 2030 Zero Waste goal.
The City of Methuen, MA is Making Progress in their Recycling Program. The City adopted our Waste Wizard educational tool and has seen progress ever since.
“The Waste Wizard will tell you what’s recyclable and how to actually recycle it.” – Jenn Harrman, Zero Waste Program Manager for the Metro of Nashville, TN
“What the Waste Wizard tool does is something we had been looking to add to our website, [so] why reinvent the wheel? This is exactly what we want.” – Alison Richardson, Office of Campus Sustainability Program Manager for the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
“We only need between 7-10% of unique visits to the Waste Wizard on our website to have replaced a phone call to the Council to have saved more than the annual cost of the Waste Wizard.” – Andrew Jenkins, Waste Prevention Team Leader for Buckinghamshire Council, UK
“If you’re wondering about 17 kinds of plastic, you can look them all up, one at a time. And if you just want to know one thing? That’s OK.” – Joanna Stone, Director of Customer Relations for Eureka Recycling.
Bulky Pickup / Special Collections
Want to make curbside collection easier for your bulky pickup items, like couches and bookshelves? Want to reduce illegal dumping?
Now you can, in just a few easy clicks. Our tool also integrates directly with payment processors, so you can get your pickup scheduled and get paid without ever lifting a finger.
P.S. Make all this and more, like cart replacement programs, easy with Service Requests.
Let people self-serve, initiating residential service, scheduling bulky and extra items, household hazardous waste, yard waste, and making changes (new cart sizes and repair requests).
In Durham, NC, bulky pickups were like “the wild west.”
“If a resident puts a bulky item out on Tuesday and called us up…and their neighbour comes by and grabs it – which is great, we love re-use – the resident would assume that we picked it up, and so we’d still send a driver out to go get it when we could and it would be a waste of a trip – waste of time, waste of gas, and just inefficient.”
Now, the “Number one thing that’s nice about the tool is that residents schedule their own collections online. They pick the day and time it’s going to be picked up…If they schedule a Friday pickup on Tuesday, and by Wednesday their item is already gone, they still get a reminder Thursday night asking if we should still pick it up or if they want to cancel. They realize we didn’t pick it up, they cancel, and it saves us a trip. It also leaves open a slot for someone else to get a pickup scheduled.”
“We set our own schedules too. We have 120 open slots for bulky pickup a day. Say one of the drivers is going on vacation next week, we can now set the available slots to 90 each day. So it helps supervisors care for their crews and makes sure nobody’s getting overworked and the workload is reasonable. It also helps us serve customers when we say we’re going to serve them.”
“We’ve got a lot of compliments on the new tool as well…for us it’s just been a monumental leap in customer service and our own efficiency.” — Jim Reingruber Asst. Director, Solid Waste Management.
“The app has caused a reduction of about 20% calls for certain services including the bulky pick up.” – Jim Reinbruger, Asst. Director Solid Waste Management for the City of Durham, NC.
In Sunnyvale, CA, customer service representatives were fielding some 50 to 100 requests for collections per week, and even more toward the end of the year as the community tried to schedule their remaining allotted bulky pickups.
We digitized 100 Special Collection Requests for Sunnyvale weekly. Since then, bulky item requests have only increased 64.34% (~5000) while call volume continues to decrease 3.56% (~200).
In less than a year, since launching their digital recycling tools in August 2020, Scottsbluff, NE reached every initial goal they set – including a downturn in illegal dumping.
Waste Sorting Game
Come play our Waste Sorting Game at Routeware City!
Help your residents learn in real-time what materials go in what bin, all while having fun.
Every element of the game you see can be customized for your city.
The Game teaches thousands of people where many items go every day, ensuring items are properly disposed of and the recycling stream is kept free of contaminants, saving the planet and saving tax-payers money.
“We love to be able to offer our customers a digital and interactive way to practice their waste sorting skills. While you might guess that the game would be most popular with our Denver Public Schools customers, it’s actually seems to be just as popular with adults. And, the metrics on “most commonly confused” materials help us understand where gaps might exist in our education efforts.” – Tay Dunklee, Program Administrator for Denver, Colorado (City & County).
Masey DeMoss – Waste Reduction and Recycling Educator with the City of Greensboro, North Carolina – was on WFMY News 2 to share the rules of recycling in Greensboro. The tool highlighted? Routeware’s Waste Sorting Game.
During a two-week period in February 2019, the City of Phoenix hosted a school recycling competition which involved 5 schools and 1,800 students.
Their Waste Sorting Game had a total of 4,437 plays during this time.
Kirkwood, Missouri reduced contamination rates from 15% to 6% in under a year utilizing their game.
Last year, there was 163,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Plastic Straws.
The Game teaches thousands of people where plastic straws go, ensuring 43 tons of straws are properly disposed of each year.
Fun Fact: there were 418,000+ correct guesses for plastic straws last year!
Last year, there was 150,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Batteries.
Batteries can cause fires in trucks and at the landfill, so disposing of them properly is extremely important. The Game taught thousands of people where batteries go, preventing recycling center fires and ensuring 37 tons of batteries have been properly disposed of, keeping potentially hazardous material out of landfills.
Fun Fact: there were 433,500+ correct guesses for batteries last year!
Last year, there was 103,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Cell Phones.
Our Game helps thousands of people properly dispose of old cell phones, diverting 15 tons of phones from landfills annually and enough mercury to contaminate more than a hundred thousand lakes.
There were 333,500+ correct guesses for cell phones last year!
More Stats:
- 134,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Metal Hangers
- 133,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Plastic Cutlery
- 110,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Plastic Shopping Bags
- 107,000 Wrong Waste Sorting Game Guesses for Paper Egg Cartons
Other Tools Not Featured in Routeware City
Curbside Audit
Easily view and access audit details, including type, objective, results and required follow-up actions, anytime, anywhere, on any device.
The tool assists in auditing & educational efforts for better understanding of current waste disposal practices, weak points, and successes.
In Abbotsford, British Columbia – well, we’ll let them take it away.
“We really like the Curbside tool because it gives us information about specific households rather than a giant zone. We can really identify hot spots and really direct our educational efforts there.” — Julie Kanya, Solid Waste and Environmental Coordinator for the City of Abbotsford.
Appointment Scheduler
Efficiently Schedule Hazardous Waste Drop-offs and More Online.
Save Time, Money, and Reduce Contamination.
Online Payment
With Routeware Online Payments, people can easily select items or services they need from a list, such as bag tags or bags, and pay for them online.
Multi-Community Waste Wizard
Handles multiple communities’ materials and disposal/recycling guidelines in the same way as our standard Waste Wizard.
Great if you have a unique set-up, or if you’re a county with multiple cities in your jurisdiction that do waste operations differently.
“If a resident of Saanich (a neighbouring municipality) types in their address into Routeware, they’re redirected to Saanich’s waste collection services – and that’s such a great solution for regional residents coming to the site and needing to end up in the right place.” – Heather Follis, Communications Coordinator and Online Specialist for the City of Victoria.
Procurement Simplified
Struggling with procurement? We can help.
“The relationship between Sourcewell and Routeware allowed us to select a tried, true, and tested solution right away, rather than spend a lot of time on the procurement process.”— Eric Fuller Environmental Programs Manager, the City of Jacksonville, FL.
Other Tool Features
Need Help?
Your residents might.
That’s why we include a customizable Need Help button in all of our web widgets and mobile apps, to improve the user experience, and to reduce the amount of queries you have to handle.
We also provide a complete list of searchable materials for residents to browse through.
This is alongside making our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Cookie Policy freely available for the sake of transparency and honesty.
All of this helps to reduce the burden placed on your city to field questions and concerns while increasing resident satisfaction.
Embedded Widget
You’ve got plenty of things going on with your website. There’s information everywhere, and there’s so much to convey. It can get overwhelming for a visitor.
That’s why we designed our tool to be embeddable on any webpage, so you can place the whole tool or versions of the tool wherever you may like.
The tool, visually stimulating, holds attention in the middle of the page and allows the desired connection between resident and city to take place, reducing confusion and enhancing connection.
Mobile App & Service Alerts
“Our mobile app, Durham Rollout, has 4.9 stars on the App Store. We never get complaints about it from anyone. That thing is flawless!” — Jim Reingruber Asst. Director, Solid Waste Management for the City of Durham, NC.
A mobile app is the best way to meet your residents where they are at all times, with the convenience and accessibility of simply reaching in their pocket any time, any place they have a question.
Our customers link their apps – we build for both Android and iOS devices – directly below their widget, directing residents to your white-labelled app in the respective app store, simplifying the promotion and adoption processes.
Many of our customers like to place a Service Alert Sign-up call-to-action for their own residents to sign up for their city’s service updates and notifications right underneath the tool, a service that can be configured in many different ways.
As an example, Fort Hood Army Base is “the U.S. Army leader in recycling,” The Recycler reports. With help from its digital tools, Fort Hood’s recycling program works to educate soldiers and civilians alike about ways to collaborate for “a greener future,” using $89,000 in recycling revenue to sponsor 32 soldier and family events.
In the City of Waco, TX a re-route was communicated, and there was a spike in mobile app usage during the ‘Big Freeze’. “We didn’t have to go to a water boil [during the big freeze] because we were able to relay the notice through the app.” – Ashley Millerd, Outreach Coordinator and Solid Waste Administrator.
The City of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada uses the app to notify people about street sweepings, outages for electricity and water, and other service alerts, with plans to communicate information about snow routes & more in the future, too.
Not Sold?
That’s okay – why don’t we let the residents who’ve used our app tell you how great it is?
“I love the weekly reminders and clear calendar of pickup days. It’s so helpful to have that just available on an app, especially since I just moved to Sacramento. I also love that you can look up how to dispose of items super clearly and it’s all in one place. I even got a reminder today about the new organics composting collection starting July 1st (the yard waste/green bin will now also be able to be used for food scraps and food, soiled paper for composting!) and it was worded very clearly.”
“I like having a reminder message the evening before, as I would previously, sometimes, forget. Now I never have to miss another debris pick up date or wonder which week it is, (garbage, recycles, yard debris, etc) since the schedule does vary. Also, it’s nice to be notified of any changes due to inclement weather and holiday schedules! Other info on the app is useful as well. Thank you!”
“I’ll admit it, I’m a pretty forgetful person. Trash is my chore, and before this app! Regularly forgot to take my bin to the curb on trash day. The weekly reminders have made me MUCH better about getting trash to the curb on time. Plus, there are helpful reminders about pickup schedule changes due to holidays or weather issues. My spouse is happier, my house is happier, I’m happier. Thanks, Sanipac.”
“When I first got this app. I really didn’t have high expectations. I mean it’s a government app. How great could it be? I can’t believe how functional and efficient this app is! The best part of it is the reminders. When you travel a lot, the fact that recycling doesn’t occur every week can be really frustrating & confusing–unless you have this app. Since I got it, we haven’t missed recycling once! Seriously, get it. You’ll wonder why you didn’t get it earlier.”
Thank you for reading through the value our tools can provide your city!
If you’re looking for our companion guide on how to utilize Routeware City, click here.
If you’re looking for a clear value proposition of how the tool can help your city, click here.
If you’re ready to have an initial, exploratory talk with a dedicated waste professional, Get Started here or by clicking on the orange button below.
