By Juan Pedro Tomás
Rubicon Technologies announced that it has entered into a three-year smart city partnership with the city of Houston, Texas to help improve residential waste and recycling services for its more than 2.3 million residents.
RUBICONSmartCity is a cloud-based technology suite that helps city governments run faster, smarter, and more effective waste, recycling, and heavy-duty municipal fleet operations. The company said that the platform includes a mobile app, an onboard data collection device, and a web-based portal that will allow the city’s Department of Solid Waste to track key metrics including service verifications, missed pickups and issues at the curb, as well as vehicle usage and maintenance information.
“We are thrilled to partner with the city of Houston to provide digital waste and recycling solutions to the City’s residents,” said chairman and CEO of Rubicon, Nate Morris.
As part of the contract, Rubicon’s products will be installed across Houston’s entire waste and recycling fleet, which currently has 391 vehicles.
“Partnering with Rubicon will help our great city optimize its solid waste operations and make it possible for us to digitize our entire waste and recycling management system,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “The city of Houston is committed to providing the highest level of service to its residents and this partnership will allow us to provide better services, save taxpayer dollars, and deliver a better quality of life for Houstonians.”
Rubicon also said that the partnership aims to improve customer service for city residents by providing enhanced reporting tools for use by 311 and waste and recycling operations, enabling drivers to document issues and exceptions along their routes, including instances of recycling contamination and bins not being placed out on time.
“The city’s Department of Solid Waste can use this information to advise and educate residents around service scheduling, best practices for waste and recycling management, and reduce costly return trips,” said Solid Waste Management Department Director Mark Wilfalk. “These insights, alongside route optimization and digitization efforts, are set to deliver an optimal operation to the City of Houston.”
