Customer Case Botek

TAGS THAT STAY CLEAN

BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGE

Botek was founded in 1978 and today has around 30 employees, with departments for system development, development of electronic components, and electronics production. Botek develops, manufactures, and sells vehicle-mounted scales with RFID-based emptying registration systems and associated software for planning, performing, and reporting collection services within the waste industry. With its solutions, the company helps waste contractors achieve a quality-assured collection process that leads to efficient operations and fair waste charges.

Imagine what a garbage bin doesn't have to endure. Not only does it need to withstand everything from scorching summer heat to the biting cold of winter with snow and ice, but it also gets heavily loaded and often undergoes quite rough handling.

"An RFID tag that is supposed to function flawlessly in such an environment must obviously be very robust and reliable," says Martin Abelson, marketing manager at Botek in Ulricehamn. "When we started building waste emptying registration systems via RFID in the second half of the 1990s, only Areff (a part of SerilineGroup) could meet the requirements we placed on the tags."

SOLUTION

Areff (a part of Seriline Group) has continued to deliver. On average, around 150,000 tags are produced each year, which, through Botek's efforts, end up on garbage bins around Sweden and Europe.

"Even though we buy large quantities of tags every year, we have never had any delivery problems. It has always worked. If we were to run into an urgent need, Areff has a small emergency stock we can draw from, which of course is very helpful," explains Martin Abelson, marketing manager, Botek.

Reliability is crucial because broken or poorly functioning tags create a lot of extra work.

"A few broken tags are manageable. But imagine if an entire municipality were to start inventorying and labeling its waste containers with RFID tags, then it wouldn't do to have a bunch of defective tags that can't be read."

"Another significant reason we have stuck with Areff is that we know we always get the quality we strive for. For example, each individual tag is tested to withstand both cold and heat before it is sent to us," says Martin.

RESULTS

However, a functioning system for identifying individual garbage bins is very effective and creates advantages for both providers and households, emphasizes Martin.

"The RFID technology, combined with our vehicle-mounted scales, means that the control and quality in waste management are significantly improved, among other things, by reducing the number of missed containers, avoiding emptying for customers who do not pay, while the services performed can always be verified."

The system also enables each bin to be weighed during emptying, and the weight of the contents is registered without the risk of confusion. This is crucial in municipalities where households pay for waste collection per kilo. There are also municipalities that carefully document and monitor the amount of waste, and with registered emptying weights on each individual container, they have all the opportunities to produce the statistics needed.

"But even waste management companies with a fixed fee benefit greatly from weighing," explains Martin Abelson. "With better knowledge of vehicle loads, you can optimize transportation to minimize fuel consumption and emissions, which is also a form of waste management."

Botek