Radar fill-level sensors · NB-IoT · UK deployment
Collect the bins that are full. Skip the ones that aren't.
Britannia IoT Solutions fits radar fill-level sensors to street bins, communal containers and bring sites across the UK, then rebuilds your collection rounds around what the data actually says. Public bodies already running this platform in Europe have cut collections by up to 71% and vehicle mileage by more than half.
What we do
Sensor-led collection, in one sentence
No jargon, no smart-city framing. A bin reports how full it is; the round goes to the ones that are.
Britannia IoT Solutions is a UK company that fits radar fill-level sensors inside bins and waste containers, streams the readings over the NB-IoT mobile network, and uses them to generate a daily collection round that visits only the containers actually approaching full.
The result is fewer collections, fewer miles, fewer complaints about overflowing bins, and a documented record of every emptying. Councils, waste contractors, universities, NHS trusts and parks authorities all buy it for the same reason: fixed-frequency rounds send crews to bins nobody used.
The problem
Fixed rounds are a guess, and the guess is expensive
Almost every public bin in Britain is emptied on a timetable set years ago, by someone estimating how busy each location would be. Usage has moved since. The timetable hasn't.
You pay to lift empty bins
When Stralsund instrumented 35 town-centre bins, the data showed some sat virtually empty between twice-weekly visits while others filled far faster than anyone expected. Every visit to the first group was cost with no output.
And the busy ones still overflow
A timetable cannot respond to a heatwave, a bank holiday, a festival or a coach party. The bins that generate complaints, photographs and councillor emails are precisely the ones a fixed frequency under-serves.
Nobody can prove what happened
When a resident says a bin has not been emptied for a fortnight, most operations have no record to check. Sensor history turns that argument into a timestamped answer you can send back the same day.
We simply cannot plan our emptyings, because a few days of sunshine can change the picture completely. So far the emptying has taken place by gut feeling.Senior engineer, technical administration — Fanø Municipality, Denmark, before deployment
Solutions
Three parts, sold as one managed service
You are not buying hardware and then working out what to do with it. Sensors, connectivity, planning software, the driver app and the reporting arrive together on a single subscription.
Radar fill-level sensors
Lid-mounted or container-mounted radar that measures the real fill level of the waste beneath it — including awkward materials like cardboard, paper and film plastic that defeat older ultrasonic units. Around ten minutes to install. No wiring, no drilling into the shell.
Sensors and connectivityDynamic round planning
Every morning the platform builds an optimised round from overnight readings, then pushes it to the driver's tablet with live fill percentages, locations and navigation. Drivers confirm each lift and report damage on the spot.
Rounds and the driver appAnalytics & reporting
Fill history for every container, heat maps of genuine demand, evidence for complaint responses, mileage and CO₂ reporting for your climate commitments, and the data to rationalise a bin estate that has grown by accretion.
Reporting and forecastingEvidence
Four public bodies, four different problems, measured outcomes
These are live deployments of the sensor and software platform we bring to the UK. They are published municipal case studies from Denmark and Germany — the technology's track record, honestly labelled, rather than a client list of our own.
71% fewer collections
Town-centre street bins
Weekly collections fell from 1,548 to 445 and weekly mileage from 1,677 km to 779 km across 35 instrumented 60-litre bins. Working hours down 30%. The pilot paid for itself inside a year and was extended by a further 100 sensors.
Read the Stralsund result Vejle, Denmark · 875 public binsTwice weekly → fortnightly
Municipality-wide rollout
547 bins across 2,000 km of roads now generate an optimised round automatically at 05:00 each day. Crewing fell from 2.0 to 1.5 full-time staff, with targets of 30% less travel, a 40% economic gain and 5.5 tonnes of CO₂ saved a year.
Read the Vejle result Fanø, Denmark · population 3,000–50,000 by season20% fewer emptyings in 8 weeks
Seasonal recycling sites
82 semi-buried containers across 14 sites on an island whose population multiplies sixteenfold in summer. Within two months of switching on, emptyings were down 20% against a 25% target — and residents stopped finding overflowing containers.
Read the Fanø result Langeland, Denmark · 220 sensorsOne vehicle removed
Rural bring-site network
A 176 km manual inspection round that consumed a day and a half every cycle was replaced by readings updated every six hours. The utility took a collection vehicle off the road and has had one sensor fault in 220 units.
Read the Langeland resultFigures as published by the operating authorities. Britannia IoT Solutions supplies the same sensor and software platform in the United Kingdom. Your own results will depend on your bin density, current collection frequency and round geography — which is exactly what a pilot is for.
Who we work with
Built for the way British waste operations are actually run
Different buyers, different maths. A unitary authority is protecting a service budget; a contractor is protecting a margin; an estates team just wants the overflowing bin outside the library to stop being a problem.
District & unitary councils
Street bins, bring sites, HWRCs and communal housing containers — with the audit trail your members and complaints team keep asking for.
For councilsWaste management contractors
Protect margin on fixed-price contracts, evidence SLA performance, and go into the next tender with data nobody else in the room has.
For contractorsUniversities, NHS & estates
Dense bin estates, one decision-maker, no procurement framework friction. Term-time and shift patterns make demand wildly uneven — and predictable.
For estates teamsTourism, coastal & parks
Where the population multiplies in July and the beach car park bin overflows by Saturday lunchtime. Seasonality is where sensors earn most.
For visitor destinationsWhy us
What you should expect from a supplier
There are cheap sensors and there is a working service. The difference shows up in year two, when the batteries need changing and nobody can remember which bin has which unit.
- Radar, not ultrasonic. Ultrasonic sensors misread cardboard, paper and film plastic, and produce the false readings that kill pilots. Vejle switched suppliers after an earlier trial produced error reports on up to 30% of readings.
- One accountable service. Sensors, SIMs, connectivity, software, driver app and support on a single subscription. No integration project you have to run yourself.
- A pilot with a real answer at the end. 90 days on one round, with a baseline taken before we start, so the business case is arithmetic rather than a brochure claim.
- Designed for the people doing the job. If drivers do not trust the round, the project fails. The app shows them why each stop is on the list and lets them push back.
- Data that stays yours. Full export, open API, UK-hosted. If you ever leave, you leave with your history.
Questions
Sensor-led waste collection: the short answers
The questions we are asked in almost every first conversation. There are more on the full FAQ page.
What does Britannia IoT Solutions actually do?
We fit radar fill-level sensors to bins, containers and bring sites, connect them to the NB-IoT mobile network, and provide the software that turns those readings into a daily collection round, a driver app and a reporting dashboard. It is sold as one managed subscription covering hardware, connectivity, software and support, so there is no separate integration project for your team to run.
How much can a council realistically save?
The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how over-serviced your current rounds are, and no supplier can tell you before measuring. Published municipal deployments of this platform give a range: Stralsund cut weekly street-bin collections by 71% and mileage by 54%; Fanø reduced emptyings by 20% within two months against a 25% target; Vejle moved from twice-weekly to fortnightly collection and reduced crewing from 2.0 to 1.5 full-time staff. The largest gains come where bins are currently emptied on a fixed frequency regardless of use, and where round geography involves long drives between stops.
How accurate are the sensors, and what about cardboard and plastic?
The sensors use radar rather than ultrasound. That matters because ultrasonic sensors scatter badly off irregular, sound-absorbing materials — flattened cardboard, paper and film plastic in particular — which is the usual cause of false readings in recycling containers. Vejle Municipality moved to radar after an earlier non-radar trial produced error reports on up to 30% of readings, and now reports very few faults. A learning algorithm also improves per-container accuracy over the first weeks as it builds a profile of that specific bin.
Do the bins need power, wiring or modification?
No. Each sensor is a self-contained sealed unit with its own battery, mounted inside the lid or the top of the container. Battery life is around eight years at six readings a day. Installation takes roughly ten minutes per bin, and operations staff routinely fit replacements themselves while out on a round. There is no cabling, no mains supply and no structural modification to the container.
How long does a rollout take?
A typical pilot is live within four to six weeks of go-ahead: a week to survey and confirm the bin register, two to three weeks for hardware and SIM provisioning, and a few days to install and calibrate. We recommend running the pilot for 90 days so the data covers more than one demand pattern. Full rollouts are usually phased round by round rather than done in one weekend, which keeps the service stable and lets the round plans settle.
Will it work alongside our existing contractor or in-cab system?
Yes. Contractors can be given their own login and receive rounds directly in the driver app, confirming each lift as they go — which is how Fanø runs it, and it also produces clean invoicing data. Where you already run an in-cab or route management system, fill-level data can be fed to it through the API instead, so crews keep the interface they know. Which route makes sense is one of the first things we work out when we talk.
Next step
See what your own bin data would say
A 90-day pilot on one round tells you exactly how much of your current collection effort is going to bins that were not full. No commitment beyond the pilot, and you keep the data.