Punctual collection

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 possess

In this article we talk about the comparison between bag and bin in the pay as you throw rfid waste collection of general waste.

In the municipalities where the pay as you throw rfid waste collection is implemented, the variable part of the PAYT is calculated on the unseparated part produced and consigned by the user – the RUR (Residual Urban Waste), i.e. “the waste remaining from the separated collection of urban and similar wastes”, according to the definition of the Ministerial Decree of 20th April 2017 on the pay as you throw tariff system. 

The pay as you throw metering of the general waste “consigned is by direct weighing, with detection of the weight, or indirectly by detecting the volume of the wastes consigned by each user”, as set out in Article 6 of the Italian Decree; indirect weighing (volumetric calculation) is the more wide

For the pay as you throw system, the best method for identifying the consignment of bag and bins is RFID technology

The Italian Ministerial Decree of 20th April 2017 on the pay as you throw tariff, in Article 3, introduces the issue of identifying users when the pay as you throw tariff system is implemented, establishing that this “tales place by assigning a unique personal code to each user”. More specifically, Article 5 sets the minimum requirements for the identification and pay as you throw metering for the quantity of waste:

"1. The user, to which the pay as you throw metering for the quantity of waste is associated, is identified directly and uniquely, by means of electronic control devices built into the container or bag with which the waste is consigned or by suitable equipment installed in special consignment points, such as containers with volumetric lim

Calculating the weight and volume in pay as you throw waste collection: the pros and cons of the two measuring methods and the advantages of the RFID system, typical of RFID waste management method.

In the pay as you throw collection process, “pay as you throw metering of the quantity of the wastes consigned is obtained by determining, as a minimum requirement, the weight or volume of the Residual municipal solid waste (MSW) consigned by each user to the waste management public service”, as set out by Article 4 of the Italian Ministerial Decree dated 20th April 2017 on the pay as you throw tariff. Again, Article 6 of the decree sets out that “the quantity of waste consigned is measured by direct weighing with detection of the weight, or indirectly by detecting the volume of the wastes consigned by each user and can be: 

 a) carried out on board the vehicle carrying out the collection, throu

The scalability of the wearable RFID devices is a key for the management of tourist peaks in RFID waste management.

In tourist destinations, the rfid pay as you throw waste collection process is subject to changes during different periods of the year - the winter for mountain locations, the summer for seaside ones - in which the greatest concentration of visitors occur. For the Municipal Authorities, managing the tourist peaks effectively is indispensable for applying the rfid pay as you throw waste collection system correctly.

Scalability and tourist peaks

Scalability is a physical concept and indicates, by definition, the capacity of a system to expand ad infinitum; a scalable system manages to expand its dimensions keeping its quality and efficiency unaltered. 

In the season where the tourist peak occurs, the

Among the environmental projects collateral to waste collection, we find the road maintenance. In this case, the wearable RFID is a simple tool for certifying that the street bins and other furniture have been emptied.

In the city, the regular emptying of the street bins for waste collection is a particularly important necessity for cleanliness and public decorum. The same requirement concerns public parks, where maintenance and decorum are fundamental so that citizens can enjoy the green spaces.

Just like the benches, drains, road signs, street lights, parking obstacles, games in the parks, advertising hoardings and other street furniture, the waste bins are municipally owned assets: a series of questions are connected with emptying them, such as you read in the list below.

The emptying of waste bins

♦  Urban Decorum

In particularly p

Among the systems for the RFID pay as you throw waste collection, there is a close relationship between the RFID reader, i.e. the hardware that reads the RFID tag placed on the bag or bin, and the software that collects the data collected during the punctual reading and processes it.

For municipalities that are moving from the waste tax (TAI) to the pay as you throw tariff system (PAYT), the choice of the most suitable hardware and software for their requirements is of fundamental importance and must be made in a fully informed way, evaluating the two components at the same time. 

Choosing hardware and software: preliminary operations

A municipal authority that is preparing to design a rfid pay as you throw system needs to perform some preliminary analyses.

♦ Analysis of the area

In the pay as you throw waste collection, the wearable devices for reading the RFID tags are fitted with GPS (Global Positioning System) to detect the coordinates – latitude and longitude – for the point where the collection occurs.

The “tools from which even the possibility of remote control of workers’ activities” are quoted in Italian Legislative Decree 151/2015 on the simplification of work and equal opportunities, the decree implementing the enabling act on work 183/2014 (so-called Jobs Act), which sets out that “they can be used exclusively for organisational and production requirements, work safety and the protection of the company assets and can be installed subject to collective agreement stipulated by the unit trade union representatives and the company trade union representatives” (Article 23).

In this regard, the purpose of the GPS on the wearable RFID device is to reveal

Choosing the right model to calculate the rfid pay as you throw tariff is fundamentally important for implementing the “Pay-As-You-Throw” principle. The simplest method for applying the PAYT is RFID waste collection.

Waste tax vs RFID Pay As You Throw tariff

While the waste tax (TARI) is calculated according to almost equal parameters everywhere, the RFID Pay-As-You-Throw tariff system needs specific models.    

The TARI, introduced starting from 2014 with Act 147 of 27th December 2013, is the tax intended to finance the costs of waste collection and disposal and is charged to the user. “The pre-requisite of the TARI is the possession or holding of premises or uncovered areas, for any reason and for any use, which may be susceptible to producing urban wastes”. 

Thi

After 6th June 2019, Italian municipalities will have to adopt the legislation on the Pay As You Throw tariff (PAYT).

The Ministerial Decree of 20th April 2017 introduced the regulations on the Pay As You Throw waste collection system (PAYT), which sets out the “criteria whereby the municipalities create pay as you throw metering systems for the quantity of waste consigned to the public service or management systems featuring the use of corrective action to share out the cost of the service, aimed at implementing an effective tariff model that is consistent with the service rendered and fully covers the costs for the management service of urban and similar wastes”. 

The Ministerial Decree entered into force on 6th June of the same year, fifteen days after it was published in the Official Journal on 22nd May 2017 and will become effective on 6th Jun

In RFID Pays As You Throw waste collection, the put-out index is the ratio between daily consignments and total of users. Critically analysing the put-out index allows municipalities to derive statistical information about the collection in their territory.

In RFID Pay As You Throw waste collection

Municipalities that apply the RFID Pays As You Throw tariff use bags or bins equipped with RFID tags, which are read by the antenna fixed on the vehicle or the device worn by the operator. It is not just counting, since the tag reading adds a set of information to the data.

When implementing Pay As You Throw waste collection, the data detected by the software for the pay as you throw reading comprises three fundamental parameters, i.e. it comes from the combination of three databases:

1. Municipal database: this comprises the invoice addressees, i.e. the residential and non-residential users – commercial, industrial, professional and production businesses in general, communities – in the municipality where Pay As You Throw waste collection is implemented; the residential ones, in turn, can be coded as individual (independent residents) and group (bl

The correlation between ergonomics and RFID wearable technology is the answer to the work-related difficulties of workers.

Emptying the bin and throwing the bag: pros and cons

In RFID PAYT waste collection, there are two main work processes and these differ depending on the containers used: emptying of bins and tossing of bags. The emptying process is a single pick up: the waste collector picks up one bin at a time and empties it into the truck hopper. Instead, in tossing the bag, the waste collector picks up from four to five bags at the same time and tosses them into the hopper together.

Both methods have pros and cons.

In PAYT waste collection, reading the RFID tags on trash bins or bags using a RFID wearable device provides information in a normalised, standard string.

The string, read from left to right, contains the following information:

• the ID of the device: the wearable wristband bears the ID of the device, never the name of the waste collector. As provided for by the EU Regulation on the protection of data 2016/679 (GDPR), it is not possible to associate the name of the person who uses the device or the device serial number on any type of server;
• the battery level;
• the date and time the RFID

In Pay As You Throw waste management, the RFID wearable device is the choice that best meets the needs of municipalities and waste collection companies approaching PAYT tariff. 

RFID Pay As You Throw waste management: the requirements of the municipalities and the waste collection companies

Currently, the municipalities that decide to adopt Pay As You Throw waste management can measure the general wastes by identifying and recording the number of times the wheelie bin is emptied or the number of consignments by the user, if a bag is used. 

In particular, the number of times the bins are emptied, or consignments, can be measured by a transponder (RFID tag) which is read by a device mounted on the vehicle (antenna) or directly by the operator by means

Safety’s studies are vital in making rfid pay as you throw waste collection easier

Italian Legislative Decree 81/08 - “Consolidation Act on Occupational Health and Safety” establishes that the employer must draw up a Risk Assessment Document (DVR) that identifies possible risks present at the work site as well prevention measures for workers’ health and safety with the aim of eliminating or, at least, reducing danger situations. 

The most common risks to the worker during timely waste collection

• Lone working

The Risk Assessment Document identifies a way of working that people operating in sectors of public interest such as maintenance, surveillance and, of course, waste collection are subject to: lone working. This work is carried out in full autonomy, without supervision and isolated from other subjects.

The origins of the Pay As You Throw legislation and how the European Union approached the “circular” economic model.

Since the environmental scandals of the 1970s and 1980s, European environmental policy has changed, and the European Union has begun working to make the environment in which we live better. This is an issue that has been increasingly felt in recent times, as is especially evident in current topics covered by both national and international media.

The topic is particularly heartfelt because as the population grows, the demand for raw materials also grows exponentially, with increasing environmental and climate impacts, aimed to worsen in the absence of careful resource exploitation policies.

The "circular" economic model

The answer to this is the introduction of a "circular" economy model with the goal of minimizing the amount of waste to

Consac srl, the waste collection service in the Chieti area, is experimenting Partitalia’s waste RFID technology, in order to arrive at the application of the PAYT tariff. Thanks to the use of the wearable device Discovery Mobile, waste collection in Miglianico has reached 83%.

There are many Italian municipalities that have responded to the adjustment of the Pay As You Throw waste tariff (PAYT), following the Ministerial Decree of April 20, 2017

«Flexible, innovative and versatile»: these are the three adjectives that define Partitalia’s technologies, in particular, “Discovery Mobile”, the RFID device for waste management that identifies the disposal.

Cosvega srl's testimony: “Discovery Mobile is a versatile RFID wearable”

Speaking is Massimo Galasso, General Manager of Cosvega srl, a company that deals with urban hygiene services, green and territory maintenance for some Municipalities in the vicinit

Discovery Mobile simplifies RFID waste collection and easily integrates with analytics systems. At IFAT we gathered the testimony of Antonio Garofano, Marketing Specialist of Officine Sostenibili srl

Today's waste collection market proposals on technological solutions and devices for all needs.
There is a wide range of certified waste collection systems on offer throughout Europe and this was seen in Munich, at the IFAT, the leading trade fair for environmental technologies.

Massimo Galasso, General Manager of Cosvega srl, describes Partitalia's technologies for RFID waste management as «flexible, innovative and versatile». In particular, 'Discovery Mobile' is the RFID wearable solution that identifies the deliveries, transferring the data to 'Discovery Cloud'.

Waste collection company: Cosvega srl

Cosvega srl ​​​​is a company that deals with urban hygiene services, maintenance of green areas and the territory for some Municipalities in the vicinity of Francavilla a Mare, where it has its headquarters, and for other territories in the province of Latina and Rome.