Waste Connections

In the Metro Vancouver region, Waste Connections partnered with Prairie Robotics to improve recycling contamination monitoring and safety. Previously, a cumbersome system involving multiple vendors and manual video requests required drivers to manually flag contamination when they viewed it on their hopper camera. As each driver collect from 1,000+ homes / day having to monitor the hopper camera and take action when contamination was seen was a major burden on drivers operating in a dense urban environment. 

With Prairie Robotics' fully automated system, over 120,000 audits were completed without driver input, and more than 6,700 personalized postcards and 600 digital notifications were sent to residents within the first 6 months. This initiative resulted in a 45% reduction in contaminants, helping the City work towards British Columbia’s 3% contamination goal.