Rubbish and recycling route change takes out another award

Palmerston North City Council has scored another award for smart thinking that’s harnessed GIS technology to improve the city’s rubbish and recycling system.

At the New Zealand Esri Awards, the project won the Eagle Technology Excellence in GIS Award, this follows on from it being awarded the 2014 GIS Project of the Year Award back in April.

GIS analyst and programmer Lucas Mostyn says GIS is all about using technology to analyse and display geographic information.

“Our rubbish and recycling division had become frustrated by the old piecemeal routes which had become unworkable in an 8-hour day.

“They came to us with the problem and we worked with them and we’ve been awarded for that initiative. I’d like to thank my colleagues Allan Davey, Natasha Simmons and Pip Chrystall, as without them this project would not have been as successful as it has been.”

“We worked out the best routes for the rubbish trucks so they don’t overlap,” says Lucas, “We have reduced right-hand turns in each route to make the drive smoother and safer and limited the number of streets missed during rubbish collection.”

“The rubbish and recycling collection service is now much improved, residents can go online to a database that gives them information about rubbish collection for their address, and rubbish truck drivers have better-designed routes that are easier and safer to drive.”

New Zealand Esri Awards judges said they were impressed with the innovative thought behind the project and said it demonstrated just how important GIS can be when solving a complex issue like rubbish and recycling routes and bringing about change.

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