Lake Worth, FL Testing Computerized Collection to See Who is Recycling

Date: January 30, 2012

Source: News Room

The City of Lake Worth, FL is testing the use of a computerized monitoring system to track individual customers' recycling rates. The system employs barcodes on individual waste containers along with readers on the collection vehicles which records each collection along with the weight of the material and the address from which it was collected. A small monitoring camera allows the driver to verify the contents of the container. Eventually, the city hopes to encourage customer participation by offering rebates or other incentives for recycling, possibly akin to or in conjunction with the Recyclebank program. It will also help the city better utilize its single-stream recycling system built three years ago. The city bought the $130,000 system, called the Container Asset Recovery Tracking System (CARTS) from California-based Rehrig Pacific with the help of a $75,100 federal grant. The system is expected to pay for itself over time based on the disparity in price paid to dispose of materials in the landfill (about $42 per ton) versus the money received from recycling ($10 per ton). It could also be used to track commercial containers and has the added benefit of verifying customer complaints about a missed collection.

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