A cleaner coastline, a greener future, with partnership and innovation at the core

This year marks 15 years of partnership between Future Street and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. From early pilots to where we are today, the council has turned smart technology into a powerful, everyday tool for public good.

From Overflow to Optimised

The Council came to us with a challenge: overflowing bins and limited resources. We knew the Bigbelly Smart Max was the answer.

In 2014, after extensive trials and collaboration, the Council launched a full-scale rollout, replacing 530 traditional bins with 401 Bigbelly units. High-capacity, weather-resistant, sensor-equipped smart bins tailored to the councils unique needs.

The results were immediate:

• 450% increase in waste capacity – from 45,000L to 250,000L
• Collection frequency dropped from 6.5x to just 1.6x per week
• Fleet reduced from 4 trucks to 1 – saving 75% in operating costs
• 60% of staff redeployed to other essential services

The Tech Behind the Transformation

At the heart of the operation is Bigbelly’s CLEAN software that delivers smart notifications and automatically generates route-optimised collection lists each morning.

Instead of checking every bin manually, the Council’s crews now know exactly where to go and when. This has dramatically reduced fuel use, saved time, and freed up the team to extend collection routes to more areas, including park entrances and public spaces.

And during the summer, when the seafront gets especially busy, that reliability and scalability really shine.

More Than Just Waste Collection

This isn’t just another proud success story of ours but a blueprint for how smart technology can reshape urban infrastructure and serve entire communities.

Beyond waste, our Bigbelly units support public service messaging with custom wraps and can be adapted with different interfaces to cater for specific waste needs. These features have helped make Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown not just cleaner, but smarter and more responsive.

The environmental benefits are significant too:

• 85,000 kWh saved annually from reduced vehicle energy use
• Substantial cuts to greenhouse gas emissions
• A lower carbon footprint

A Commitment to Sustainability

As Cllr Cormac Devlin, Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, put it:

“Our Bigbelly deployment showcases the County Council’s strong commitment to reduce its environmental footprint and drive tangible efficiencies in our day-to-day work process through the medium of smart, analytic-driven technology.”

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown’s story is a great example of what’s possible when councils think long-term.

To the entire Council team, thank you. Here’s to 15 years of partnership, and many more to come.