High River's garbage bins are going high tech.

The Town will be putting radio frequency-identification tags on residential garbage bins starting this week.

The idea is to link individual bins to addresses and be able to track if people missed out on having their garbage picked up and why.

They'll roll out the tags starting Wednesday, April 11 in Eagleview and put them out around the rest of the Town over the next few months.

The tags don't take up much room on the bins, and are fairly unobtrusive.

In a release from the Town:

By scanning each tag on the carts, drivers will be able to easily monitor and track their routes and record successful and/or unsuccessful pick-ups.

Previously, pick-ups may have been unsuccessful, and may have resulted in drivers being called back to a location because:

Carts were placed too close to objects
Carts were not placed on the curb by 7 a.m.
Carts were overfilled or contained prohibited materials/contaminants

With the new system, Operations staff will be able to look up a customer’s address in the system and communicate the reason that the pick-up was unsuccessful, therefore correcting these errors for future pick-ups and successfully reinforcing the correct placement methods for residents.

The new technology will minimize the need to send trucks back out to collect improperly placed or overfilled carts and will also facilitate the recovery of stolen or misplaced carts while maintaining an accurate cart inventory.

The Town asks that residents make sure their carts are out on their regular garbage collection day from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., even if carts do not need to be tipped.

This will allow Town staff to tag all of the carts in their inventory.

Questions can be directed to the Town’s main Operations line at 403-652-4657.

 

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