Presentation on missed bin collections and an API to help reduce missed bin collections. Presented by Liam Hawkes, from Luton Borough Council, at the Local Waste Service Standards Project: Alpha Showcase and Workshop held in London on 23 October 2015.

1. Liam Hawkes
Luton Borough Council
Integration in action

2. “You’ve missed
my bin!”
Customer
“Is it really a
missed bin?”
Council

3. Current
process
5,101
Calls - 2014
4,077
Web Page visits - 2014
• Customer realises their bin has not been collected
• Visits website to find out how to report
• Ring number, but it’s before 4pm
• Asked to call back after 4pm but before 5:30pm
• Given explanation
• IF genuine missed - ticket is raised to collect next day
• IF not missed - options are explained
• Bin is then collected

4. £10,662
Estimated cost of calls to the council in 2014
5101 (calls) x £2.09 (cost per call)

5. Prototype of new process
• Customer can go online
• Number and postcode to look up ‘collection status’ in realtime
• Get a message dependent on status
• Message or report it

6. Fix the cause
Not the symptoms

7. £94,737
Estimated cost of collecting missed bins 2014 plus cost of calls

8. Can the API help us reduce missed bins?
• Dynamic ‘collection day’ lookup
• Automated email notifications to repeat offenders
• Modify council procedures
• Bin education

9. Questions?
Thanks for your time