Challenge:
Route planner for identification of vessels and containers for waste on the island of Brač
BrighterBins™ — Island-wide Smart Route Planning & Container Identification for Brač
Summary
BrighterBins™ will turn every 120 L kerbside bin and 1 100 L “green-island” container on Brač into an intelligent, self-reporting asset by installing multi-LPWAN fill-level sensors that also register each physical pick-up event—so the system automatically knows which bin was emptied, where and when without needing extra RFID hardware (though tags can still be added for PAY as You Throw or access-control if the island wishes).
Sensor data travel over Croatia’s nationwide LoRaWAN network, with NB-IoT as a fallback, ensuring coverage even in remote areas.
The BrighterBins cloud platform forecasts fill-ups and pushes turn-by-turn routes to drivers’ tablets; similar city-scale roll-outs (e.g. 11 000 sensors in Edinburgh) have already cut collection costs by 30 % and complaints by 50 %.
Across its 70000-bin fleet BrighterBins delivers up to 45 % logistics savings, translating on Brač to roughly a one-third drop in driven kilometres, fuel and CO₂.
In short, the island gets real-time fill and pick-up visibility, AI-optimised routes, optional PAY as you Throw billing interfaces, and a dashboard that tracks every avoided kilometre and tonne of emissions—advancing Brač’s CO₂-neutrality goals without the maintenance overhead of separate RFID infrastructure.
Sensor data travel over Croatia’s nationwide LoRaWAN network, with NB-IoT as a fallback, ensuring coverage even in remote areas.
The BrighterBins cloud platform forecasts fill-ups and pushes turn-by-turn routes to drivers’ tablets; similar city-scale roll-outs (e.g. 11 000 sensors in Edinburgh) have already cut collection costs by 30 % and complaints by 50 %.
Across its 70000-bin fleet BrighterBins delivers up to 45 % logistics savings, translating on Brač to roughly a one-third drop in driven kilometres, fuel and CO₂.
In short, the island gets real-time fill and pick-up visibility, AI-optimised routes, optional PAY as you Throw billing interfaces, and a dashboard that tracks every avoided kilometre and tonne of emissions—advancing Brač’s CO₂-neutrality goals without the maintenance overhead of separate RFID infrastructure.
Foreseen impact
BrighterBins™ will cut Brač’s waste-collection kilometres by roughly one-third, slash diesel use and CO₂, and give the municipality real-time, verifiable service data—freeing money and staff hours for other public services while making the island cleaner and more attractive to residents and tourists.
1. Environmental & Climate Impact
1.1 CO₂ and fuel
Comparable smart-sensor roll-outs (e.g. 11 000 BrighterBins units in Edinburgh) drove a 30 % fall in collection costs and a 50 % drop in overflowing-bin calls .
Route-optimisation studies show up to 40 % fuel savings and 30 % lower CO₂ when bins are emptied on demand instead of by timetable .
For example in Brač, nine collection trucks covering ≈225 000 km/yr (80 km × 6 days × 52 weeks × 9 vehicles) burn ~101 000 L of diesel. Cutting kilometres by 35 % avoids ~35 000 L of fuel and ≈95 t CO₂/yr (using 2.68 kg CO₂/L) —roughly the annual exhaust of ≈190 passenger cars.
1.2 Secondary environmental benefits
Fewer trips and smart “fill-before-spill” alerts remove an estimated 50 % of overflow incidents, curbing litter, pest attraction and plastics entering the Adriatic .
Live fire-temperature alarms built into the sensors enable rapid response to bin fires.
2. Operational & Economic Impact
Category: Fuel
Baseline: 101 000 L / year
With BrighterBins: 65 000 L / year
Year-1 Benefit: -€60 000 (diesel @ €1.75 / L)
Category: Driver time
Baseline: 52 000 h / year
With BrighterBins: 46 000 h / year
Year-1 Benefit: +12 % productivity (≈ €75 000 wage savings)
Category: Overflow clean-ups
Baseline: 2 100 calls / year
With BrighterBins: 1 050 calls / year
Year-1 Benefit: -€35 000 street-clean budget
Return on investment: < 24 months on a €550 k capex (sensors + SaaS + training) thanks to the combined fuel, labour and clean-up savings.
3. Social & Tourism Impact
Brač’s summer tourist influx almost doubles waste generation; Croatian studies show tourism waste rose 93 % between 2015-19
. On-demand routing keeps bins serviceable even on peak days, protecting the island’s visitor experience.
The live dashboard gives citizens and visitors transparent cleanliness metrics, supporting local “zero-litter” campaigns and EU “smart island” branding .
Quicker navigation and automatic pick-up logging lighten seasonal drivers’ cognitive load, enhancing road safety .
4. Policy & Programme Alignment
The solution delivers verifiable CO₂ cuts that feed directly into CO₂ PACMAN reporting, helping Brač meet Mediterranean climate-neutrality targets.
Integrated pick-up sensing satisfies the challenge’s requirement for automatic electronic identification of containers and trucks without a separate RFID layer, but keeps tags optional for future Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) extensions .
Using the nationwide OIV-Smartino LoRaWAN network ensures coverage “even in areas without Internet or electricity,” minimising new infrastructure spend .
In short: BrighterBins cuts Brač’s waste-collection emissions by ≈95 t CO₂ a year, trims operating costs by ~€180 k, halves overflow complaints, and future-proofs the island’s waste system for PAYT and ESG compliance—delivering measurable environmental, economic and social dividends within two years.
1. Environmental & Climate Impact
1.1 CO₂ and fuel
Comparable smart-sensor roll-outs (e.g. 11 000 BrighterBins units in Edinburgh) drove a 30 % fall in collection costs and a 50 % drop in overflowing-bin calls .
Route-optimisation studies show up to 40 % fuel savings and 30 % lower CO₂ when bins are emptied on demand instead of by timetable .
For example in Brač, nine collection trucks covering ≈225 000 km/yr (80 km × 6 days × 52 weeks × 9 vehicles) burn ~101 000 L of diesel. Cutting kilometres by 35 % avoids ~35 000 L of fuel and ≈95 t CO₂/yr (using 2.68 kg CO₂/L) —roughly the annual exhaust of ≈190 passenger cars.
1.2 Secondary environmental benefits
Fewer trips and smart “fill-before-spill” alerts remove an estimated 50 % of overflow incidents, curbing litter, pest attraction and plastics entering the Adriatic .
Live fire-temperature alarms built into the sensors enable rapid response to bin fires.
2. Operational & Economic Impact
Category: Fuel
Baseline: 101 000 L / year
With BrighterBins: 65 000 L / year
Year-1 Benefit: -€60 000 (diesel @ €1.75 / L)
Category: Driver time
Baseline: 52 000 h / year
With BrighterBins: 46 000 h / year
Year-1 Benefit: +12 % productivity (≈ €75 000 wage savings)
Category: Overflow clean-ups
Baseline: 2 100 calls / year
With BrighterBins: 1 050 calls / year
Year-1 Benefit: -€35 000 street-clean budget
Return on investment: < 24 months on a €550 k capex (sensors + SaaS + training) thanks to the combined fuel, labour and clean-up savings.
3. Social & Tourism Impact
Brač’s summer tourist influx almost doubles waste generation; Croatian studies show tourism waste rose 93 % between 2015-19
. On-demand routing keeps bins serviceable even on peak days, protecting the island’s visitor experience.
The live dashboard gives citizens and visitors transparent cleanliness metrics, supporting local “zero-litter” campaigns and EU “smart island” branding .
Quicker navigation and automatic pick-up logging lighten seasonal drivers’ cognitive load, enhancing road safety .
4. Policy & Programme Alignment
The solution delivers verifiable CO₂ cuts that feed directly into CO₂ PACMAN reporting, helping Brač meet Mediterranean climate-neutrality targets.
Integrated pick-up sensing satisfies the challenge’s requirement for automatic electronic identification of containers and trucks without a separate RFID layer, but keeps tags optional for future Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) extensions .
Using the nationwide OIV-Smartino LoRaWAN network ensures coverage “even in areas without Internet or electricity,” minimising new infrastructure spend .
In short: BrighterBins cuts Brač’s waste-collection emissions by ≈95 t CO₂ a year, trims operating costs by ~€180 k, halves overflow complaints, and future-proofs the island’s waste system for PAYT and ESG compliance—delivering measurable environmental, economic and social dividends within two years.
About the solver
About the solver
SmartEnds BV (brand: BrighterBins™) is a privately-held IoT scale-up founded in 2017 and headquartered in Ghent, Belgium.
The company employs 30 staff specialising in edge-AI sensors, low-power wide-area (LPWAN) connectivity and cloud route-optimisation for waste and resource logistics.
Core competencies
End-to-end smart-waste platform – proprietary multi-LPWAN fill-level sensors with built-in pick-up detection, a cloud AI that predicts fill-ups and clusters stops, and a driver app providing live navigation and proof-of-service photos.
Large-scale deployments – more than 70 000 connected containers across 15 countries, including the EU’s biggest smart-bin roll-out (11 000 sensors for the City of Edinburgh).
Interoperable networking – devices ship with LoRaWAN®, NB-IoT and LTE-M; the solution is certified on Croatia’s national OIV Smartino IoT network that covers even off-grid areas.
Open API & data governance – REST/JSON endpoints, GDPR-compliant hosting in AWS Frankfurt and ISO 27001-aligned security practices.
Reference projects
City of Edinburgh, UK – 11 000 BrighterBins sensors cut collection costs by 30 % and overflow complaints by 50 %.
Wolverhampton, UK – 700 sensors reduced route mileage by 35 %.
Quatra Cooking-Oil Recycling, EU – 5 000 oil-tank sensors cut fleet OPEX by 30 %.
Suez partnership, FR-BE – joint offering integrates BrighterBins hardware into Sigrenea’s container-tracking suite for municipal clients.
Awards & recognition
Deloitte EMEA Technology Fast 500 (2023) winner – recognised among the region’s fastest-growing tech companies.
“Scale-Up of the Year” (2021) – British Embassy Brussels innovation awards.
Memberships & ecosystem links
SmartEnds is an active participant in the LoRa® ecosystem through platform integrations and events, and collaborates with telecom operators, network providers and circular-economy research consortia across Europe.
Contact
Head office: Vlasgaardstraat 52, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Website: https://smartends.com / https://brighterbins.com
CEO: Noman Ahmed – 25 + years in IoT hardware & AI, ex-Cisco/Technicolor.
SmartEnds combines proven large-scale sensor deployments with award-winning growth momentum to deliver measurable CO₂, cost and service gains—making it a reliable solver for the Brač waste-logistics challenge.
SmartEnds BV (brand: BrighterBins™) is a privately-held IoT scale-up founded in 2017 and headquartered in Ghent, Belgium.
The company employs 30 staff specialising in edge-AI sensors, low-power wide-area (LPWAN) connectivity and cloud route-optimisation for waste and resource logistics.
Core competencies
End-to-end smart-waste platform – proprietary multi-LPWAN fill-level sensors with built-in pick-up detection, a cloud AI that predicts fill-ups and clusters stops, and a driver app providing live navigation and proof-of-service photos.
Large-scale deployments – more than 70 000 connected containers across 15 countries, including the EU’s biggest smart-bin roll-out (11 000 sensors for the City of Edinburgh).
Interoperable networking – devices ship with LoRaWAN®, NB-IoT and LTE-M; the solution is certified on Croatia’s national OIV Smartino IoT network that covers even off-grid areas.
Open API & data governance – REST/JSON endpoints, GDPR-compliant hosting in AWS Frankfurt and ISO 27001-aligned security practices.
Reference projects
City of Edinburgh, UK – 11 000 BrighterBins sensors cut collection costs by 30 % and overflow complaints by 50 %.
Wolverhampton, UK – 700 sensors reduced route mileage by 35 %.
Quatra Cooking-Oil Recycling, EU – 5 000 oil-tank sensors cut fleet OPEX by 30 %.
Suez partnership, FR-BE – joint offering integrates BrighterBins hardware into Sigrenea’s container-tracking suite for municipal clients.
Awards & recognition
Deloitte EMEA Technology Fast 500 (2023) winner – recognised among the region’s fastest-growing tech companies.
“Scale-Up of the Year” (2021) – British Embassy Brussels innovation awards.
Memberships & ecosystem links
SmartEnds is an active participant in the LoRa® ecosystem through platform integrations and events, and collaborates with telecom operators, network providers and circular-economy research consortia across Europe.
Contact
Head office: Vlasgaardstraat 52, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Website: https://smartends.com / https://brighterbins.com
CEO: Noman Ahmed – 25 + years in IoT hardware & AI, ex-Cisco/Technicolor.
SmartEnds combines proven large-scale sensor deployments with award-winning growth momentum to deliver measurable CO₂, cost and service gains—making it a reliable solver for the Brač waste-logistics challenge.
Indicative budget/Phases
Rolling out 1 200 BrighterBins™ sensors and running them for three years and five months costs ≈ €353 000 in total (≈ €135 000 upfront capex + ≈ €218 000 running costs).
Phase-by-phase cost detail (all figures ex-VAT)
Phase 1 – Pilot in Supetar (June – August 2025)
• 100 SmartEnds sensors at the pilot price of €98 each → €9 800.
• One-off connectivity for those 100 sensors at €10 each (5-year LoRaWAN / NB-IoT plan) → €1 000.
• Installation & driver training package → €5 000.
• Routing-platform licence for 100 bins at €3.99 per bin per month for 3 months → ≈ €1 200.
Total Phase 1: ≈ €17 000.
Phase 2 – Island-wide roll-out (September 2025 – January 2026)
• 1 100 SmartEnds sensors at the volume price of €75 each → €82 500.
• One-off connectivity for those 1 100 sensors at €10 each → €11 000.
• If BrighterBins installation services are required, they will be quoted separately at municipal request; the figure is therefore not included here.
• Routing-platform licence for the full fleet (1 200 bins) at €3.99 per bin per month for 5 months → ≈ €24 000.
Total Phase 2: ≈ €118 000.
Capital subtotal (Phases 1 + 2)
Sensors, connectivity, initial SaaS and pilot services sum to ≈ €135 000.
Phase 3 – Support & maintenance (April 2026 – March 2029)
• Routing-platform SaaS for 1 200 bins at €3.99 per bin per month for 36 months → ≈ €173 000. (SmartEnds platform bundles real-time fill data and AI route optimisation.
• Local SLA, RMA stock and on-island field service at the reduced €15 000 per year → €45 000 over three years.
Total Phase 3: ≈ €218 000.
Full programme grand total
≈ €135 000 (capex) + ≈ €218 000 (OPEX) = ≈ €353 000.
Phase-by-phase cost detail (all figures ex-VAT)
Phase 1 – Pilot in Supetar (June – August 2025)
• 100 SmartEnds sensors at the pilot price of €98 each → €9 800.
• One-off connectivity for those 100 sensors at €10 each (5-year LoRaWAN / NB-IoT plan) → €1 000.
• Installation & driver training package → €5 000.
• Routing-platform licence for 100 bins at €3.99 per bin per month for 3 months → ≈ €1 200.
Total Phase 1: ≈ €17 000.
Phase 2 – Island-wide roll-out (September 2025 – January 2026)
• 1 100 SmartEnds sensors at the volume price of €75 each → €82 500.
• One-off connectivity for those 1 100 sensors at €10 each → €11 000.
• If BrighterBins installation services are required, they will be quoted separately at municipal request; the figure is therefore not included here.
• Routing-platform licence for the full fleet (1 200 bins) at €3.99 per bin per month for 5 months → ≈ €24 000.
Total Phase 2: ≈ €118 000.
Capital subtotal (Phases 1 + 2)
Sensors, connectivity, initial SaaS and pilot services sum to ≈ €135 000.
Phase 3 – Support & maintenance (April 2026 – March 2029)
• Routing-platform SaaS for 1 200 bins at €3.99 per bin per month for 36 months → ≈ €173 000. (SmartEnds platform bundles real-time fill data and AI route optimisation.
• Local SLA, RMA stock and on-island field service at the reduced €15 000 per year → €45 000 over three years.
Total Phase 3: ≈ €218 000.
Full programme grand total
≈ €135 000 (capex) + ≈ €218 000 (OPEX) = ≈ €353 000.