Since early January 2025, residents of Birmingham in the UK have been caught in the dispute between the city council and the Unite union over pay, terms and conditions for waste and recycling collectors. The latest attempt at talks broke down in acrimony.
At one point during the crisis, there were 17 tonnes of uncollected rubbish in Birmingham. Businesses and residents face public health and safety risks including pest infestations and the spread of disease and fire hazards.
These have tainted the reputation of the city and hurt its chances of hosting events and attracting visitors. The news of cat-sized rats in Birmingham has made headlines from the US to Australia.
Read more:
Birmingham bin strikes: a threat to public health
Workers’ pay is being negotiated between the union and the council in Birmingham. However, this is a fairly dangerous job and, with an ageing population, it may become more difficult to hire new workers. We argue that a more fair approach would be to use technology to help transition workers (including through training) towards better paid and safer positions.
This would be an opportunity to build more sustainable waste management in the UK’s second largest city and beyond. Advances in robotics and AI are making automated refuse collection a reality, for example. Some cities in the US, Canada and parts of Europe already use robotics-enabled equipment in their refuse collection systems.
A shortage of skilled personnel threatens the transition towards a greener economy. People have to be at the centre of the solution. In this case, skilled workers are needed to keep different types of waste separate and so improve recycling rates.
The recovery value can be high for certain products such as electronics, automotive parts, as well as materials like plastic and metal. This is still difficult for machines to do.
Smart bins and automated trucks
Birmingham city council has already proposed improvements to waste collection. Based on publicly available information, it aims at increasing the number of rubbish trucks, reducing the number of collection days and retraining refuse collectors. But it has yet to take full advantage of existing advanced technologies.
The plan, for instance, proposes improving communication with residents about collection day via text messages. While welcome, this is rather basic. It was only during the pandemic that all recycling centres started using online booking systems. Prior to that, endless queues were common – wasting time and increasing emissions with traffic jams.
We argue that a whole-systems approach is needed to make the most of the opportunities new technology affords. Automated side loader trucks and smart bins are already used in various cities – the latter use sensors to monitor waste volumes and predict when collection is needed. The council could analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each technology in different areas of the city.
Side loader trucks, which can lift up large bins and empty them, automate a dangerous process and are already considered a mature technology, used in cities across the US, Canada and Sweden. These trucks are difficult to drive in narrow streets. But, where appropriate, their benefits include increased productivity, reduced collection costs and greater worker safety.
Sensors embedded in the vehicle, including from cameras, can provide data on the distribution of waste in different areas. This helps to produce a waste map. AI algorithms can analyse the data and provide customised collection schedules that optimise the use of trucks in the collection fleet. The algorithms can learn and be continuously revised to improve the service.
In busy areas of the city, information from smart bins can prevent rubbish accumulating. Advanced machine learning techniques can then be employed to further optimise the collection schedule by detecting, for instance, anomalies such as a sudden increase in some types of waste. Such systems can provide more adaptable solutions and increase the productivity of officers.
Recent improvements in imaging techniques and chemical analysis can help to identify different waste materials and allow automatic sorting, and the identification of hazardous waste.
Other technological solutions, such as the use of smart underground large storage containers as communal bins allow for less frequent collections, but they may require significant changes to both infrastructure and trucks. These already exist in parts of Spain.
Pneumatic waste collection systems have been tested in Wembley, a suburb in northwest London. In this system, waste is sucked through underground pipes by a fan system at speeds approaching 50mph to a central point, where it is stored in airtight containers until further treatment takes place. More than 30 countries adopt this system.
Educating the public is vital too. Reducing waste in the first place is a good way to save money and would reduce pressure on waste collection systems.
As far as Birmingham goes, overlooking advanced technologies won’t make the council’s task of satisfying residents and waste collection teams any easier. We think a lot of people would be happier to see more robotics trucks and smart bins than more rats in the streets.
