Waste Patrol
Waste Patrol
People searching public bins for returnable bottles leave litter behind. Waste Patrol is a fast-response system that turns citizen reports into a clean-up route — before the next complaint arrives.
Ireland's Deposit Return Scheme is working. But at high-traffic bins on O'Connell Street, Temple Bar, and similar locations, people pull bags out looking for bottles and cans, leave the contents on the footpath, and walk on. By the time a city worker arrives, there are photos on social media and a report in the council inbox.
The issue isn't the scheme — it's the gap between the mess being made and anyone knowing about it.
Each bin has a unique QR code tied to its GPS position in the platform. A citizen spots litter, scans the QR sticker on the nearest bin, and a mobile web page opens — no app, no account.
Optional photo and email. They can attach a photo of the litter and enter their email for a monthly prize draw. The whole report takes under 30 seconds.
Automatic severity scoring. Reports with photos are scored 1–5 based on what's visible. Reports without photos default to 2.
One click creates a route. The operator presses Create Route. The system clusters nearby reports and sorts them by severity. The patrol team gets a numbered task list with navigation.
Team cleans, photos the result, moves on. Every job is logged with a timestamp and photo. The operator sees it close in real time.
These three bins are live. Scan the QR code or tap the link to open the real reporting form. Your report will appear in the operator dashboard immediately.
BIN-D001
O'Connell Street, Dublin 1
BIN-D002
St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
BIN-D003
Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Seven reports across three Dublin locations. The system has created three tasks in priority order. The animated marker shows the patrol vehicle moving between stops.
Waste Patrol is designed as a lightweight layer on top of existing city infrastructure, not a replacement. For operators who already use Sensoneo, the backend connects directly to the Sensoneo Waste Management System — reports feed into the same operational dashboard, tasks are dispatched through the standard workflow, and drivers use the Sensoneo driver application they already know. No second screen, no parallel system.
For cities without an existing platform, the standalone Waste Patrol dashboard covers the full loop from report to resolution.
Not every mess around a bin is caused by bottle hunters. Sometimes a bin is simply overflowing because the city's collection schedule hasn't kept up with footfall. Without a way to distinguish the two, Re-turn risks being blamed for a problem that is really a collection frequency issue.
The Sensoneo ultrasonic bin sensor mounted on selected high-traffic bins gives the operator a live view of how full each bin is. If a bin consistently hits 90% capacity before collection arrives, that is evidence for the city to increase its service frequency — and it clearly separates that problem from DRS-related litter. The sensor integrates directly with the Sensoneo platform.
Several Irish cities already have CCTV coverage of high-footfall public spaces. Where a camera feed URL is associated with a bin location, the operator can pull up the live view alongside an incoming report — useful for confirming the situation before dispatching the team, escalating to the council, or quickly closing a false report.
The integration is read-only and optional. Waste Patrol does not record, store, or process camera footage. The camera link is simply surfaced in the operator's view when a report arrives at a covered location.
Both views share the same login.