17 February 2020

The number of installed smart waste management sensors is set to rise from 379,000 worldwide in 2018 to 1.5 million in 2023.

That is according to new research from M2M/IoT market research company Berg Insight, which also said that figure represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 30%.

These wirelessly connected sensors can either be pre-integrated into waste bins and containers or retrofitted into existing ones.

At present, Europe accounts for more than 50% of the installed base. The UK, as well as  markets such as the Benelux, France, Spain and the Nordics have witnessed particularly positive market developments.

The world’s leading smart waste sensor technology vendor in Q3-2019 was the US-based smart bin provider Bigbelly, which had a global market share of 13.3 percent. Finnish Enevo and Chinese Dingtek Technology shared second place. Enevo is a leading player in Europe and North America while Dingtek has a strong position on its domestic market.

Other important vendors include UK vendor FarSite Communications.

The top 10 vendors accounted for more than 60% of the global installed base of smart waste sensors. Many of them have chosen to focus on specific customer segments such as public litter bins, commercial waste containers or textile recycling banks.

“The interest in smart waste sensor technology has increased significantly over the past 18 months and is now increasingly seen as an integral part of any smart city strategy”, said Levi Ostling, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight.

Cellular 2G/3G/4G technology has prevailed as the dominant connectivity option for smart waste sensor installations, accounting for around three quarters of the global installed base in 2018. LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT, LTE-M, LoRaWAN and Sigfox are however establishing themselves as attractive alternatives due to their lower power consumption – a feature that is essential for the performance of smart waste sensors as they are mainly battery powered.

In fact, LPWA communications technologies accounted for around 20% of the global installed base of smart waste sensors in 2018. The share is expected to increase to more than 50% by 2023.

“The transition to LPWA will significantly improve the overall feasibility of smart waste sensor investments and prompt a growing number of large-scale initiatives in the near future,” added Ostling.