2026 Roadmap to Transforming Waste and Recycling Operations

This playbook offers fleet leadership a look at an operating environment poised to redefine collection effectiveness and efficiency.

2026 Roadmap to Transforming Waste and Recycling Operations with Data

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Some call it the currency of digital transformation.

Now, thanks to integrated, automated data-capture solutions, issues concerning route optimization, overtime, fees, new revenue streams, callbacks, public engagement, and more can be confidently and thoughtfully addressed with evidence-based clarity. Data also fuels the biggest prize of all: Breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI) solutions destined to revolutionize waste and recycling management in ways scarcely imagined until recently.

With it, waste and recycling officials can unleash a golden cascade of operational benefits, starting with:

• Improved decision-making • New revenue streams

• Enhanced resident engagement • Increased service effectiveness • Healthier, less costly vehicle fleet expense

How are public sector leaders and private haulers taking advantage of this data largesse?

What are the leading use cases?

We’re talking about data , of course … the virtual output of an industry relentlessly transitioning to a digital-everything ecosystem. Today, sensors, cameras, telematic devices, scales, and other IoT technologies offer fleet managers unprecedented real-time visibility and insight into field activities. No reliance on hand-written driver notes. No paper-based processes that delay or obscure discernment.

How is data-based insight transforming the resident and waste hauler experience?

This playbook, which draws on insights from the top conversations at Routeware’s 2025 Summit, held in October 2025 in Austin, Texas, examines those questions and others, offering fleet leadership a look at an operating environment poised to redefine collection effectiveness and efficiency.

The Growing Power of Waste Management Data

Taken together, the data helps fleet operators demonstrably advance progress across several fronts:

Waste and recycling collection data comes in many forms, some expected, some less so. For example, IoT devices inform only part of the data infrastructure that’s helping to drive digital transformation. Armed with comprehensive data from many sources — much of it real-time data accessible via cloud — fleet administrators and managers can problem-solve with greater insight and confidence: • Geographic data, such as road networks, one-way streets, low bridges, and turn restrictions. • Operational data, like constrained alleys, gate codes, and other practical limits. • Driver data, including driver start time, allotted hours, speeding, and hard stops. • Vehicle data, including vehicle capacity/tonnage, transfer locations, and maintenance reports.

Safety

Collection

Contamination

Monitoring

• Collection location data, such as GPS coordinates of resident stops.

• Sensor and camera data, including weather and traffic conditions, service verification, vehicle safety, and even bin contamination. • Historical data, such as route completion times, fuel consumption, and waste generation patterns by location, time of year, and special events/holidays.

Safety Connected cameras have dramatically increased safety in waste collection. “Both in the public and private realms, these huge trucks are driving through our cities, but they’re doing it much more safely than they ever used to,” said Phil Lamb, managing director for WasteVision AI, a leading developer of waste exception technology, at the 2025 Routeware Summit. What’s more, research finds this type of technology reduces both accident rates and claim costs when accidents do happen. Related to safety is damage to personal property, such as bumping into a parked vehicle. IoT devices can document driver performance, often providing photo evidence that exonerates the crew from unwarranted damage claims and potential litigation. Data capture can help indemnify local governments or haulers, serving as a low-cost form of insurance. Collection There are few things more frustrating to 311 service reps than hearing, “Hey, you missed my house.” Too often, the customer’s bin isn’t out, and the driver becomes an easy target for a missed pick-up. Not only does the callback waste valuable time for call center and collection crew staff, but the waste collection provider must eat the cost of the return visit. “It’s [the customer’s] word against the driver,” and without image data, it can be challenging to hold residents accountable, said Tiffany Batiste, assistant director for business intelligence and strategic initiatives for the City of Dallas Department of Sanitation Services, at the 2025 Routeware Summit.

The department was experiencing record-high missed collections among its 260,000 residential customers and 156 daily garbage and recycling routes when Batiste joined two years ago. Batiste and her team equipped drivers with tablets to mark exceptions, which is tied to the 311 call center. Missed collections dropped by 35% in the first year alone, the 17-year city official reports, noting the data is now part of a “data lake” administered by the city’s data department. Other city departments have access to the lake, such as the water department, which they leverage for meter readers. That idea of cross-department data sharing is a priority for Moses Tejuoso, the public works director for the City of Atlanta. At the Summit, he shared how his team is working hard to break down data silos. That includes collaborating with transportation teams on road conditions and with the code enforcement team on blight and right-of-way conditions. For example, drivers report rain, sleet, and snow conditions as well as blocked roads and debris, which helps the city’s 311 call center team anticipate changing city conditions.

There are few things more frustrating to 311 service reps than hearing, “Hey, you missed my house.”

Contamination Armando Ortega knows most residents want to do the right thing when they set out the trash and recycling each week. Ortega is the customer experience manager for GFL Environmental in Houston, Texas, a residential and commercial waste management service. “If you don’t work in our industry, [trash] is just something that’s not on your mind,” Ortega said at the Summit. “What do you do with paint? What do you do with oil? What do you do with sheet rock and those types of things?” Residents aren’t always sure how to dispose of those items, he added. It’s understandable, then, why contamination continues to vex waste and recycling haulers. Fortunately, data can support enforcement by helping to modify resident behavior and simplify collection.

Resident communication cannot be underestimated. Helping modify household behavior to improve sorting and collection compliance is a core imperative of any effective waste and recycling management program. Yet traditional, paper-based communication strategies – mailed postcards and calendars, for example – often fall short in an online world. Data-based communication tools provide the immediacy, relevance, and convenience that fleet operators require today. Routeware has taken the lead in this area with its ReCollect communication tools. ReCollect simplifies community engagement with real-time service updates, collection reminders, and education resources that help keep residents informed, connected, and involved.

AI-enabled cameras are trained to recognize non-recyclable contaminants in a food waste or recycling hopper in the week’s trash.

“If we can tie contamination events to those [specific] individuals,” WasteVision AI’s Lamb said, “and then you can get that data, and … communicate with your residents, both fielding inbound and going outbound, I think you have something very, very powerful there.”

Monitoring It’s fair to think of telematics as the forerunner to IoT devices, now a core component of public and private-sector fleets everywhere. The diversity and quantity of telematics devices are robust, ranging from location and vehicle movement data to engine diagnostics and driver behavior (e.g., harsh braking, cornering, speeding). That data is enabling fleets to take a more predictive approach to maintenance, said Brian Karp, product solutions lead at Geotab, a leader in telematic device development and innovation, at the Summit. “Now you’re not having to wait for [something] to break down,” he said. “You can start being more proactive and saying, ‘Hey, we see the trends. Just like we’ve seen them over the safety perspective, now we can see it from an operations perspective on how they’re running their routes or how they’re utilizing the vehicles.” Recognizing and rewarding exemplary driver performance is another way collection teams can leverage the data. Many communities face driver shortages. It’s not always easy to maneuver a 30-ton garbage truck through twisty urban and suburban routes. Telematic data, especially when paired with cameras, can serve as a powerful scorecard, helping identify top driver talent by setting performance thresholds across safety metrics and collection effectiveness.

The Data Management Challenge

Data is often described as the economy’s new oil.

“I’m proud of how we’re able to use technology to have intentional outcomes,” Shaw said. “It moved us from sort of the bottom tier, if you will, of city services to the top tier of city services.” Few dispute the robust operational effectiveness that data can help unlock. But the very thing that holds so much promise – massive, diverse data streams from multiple sources – threatens easy cleansing and refinement. So says Vighnesh Lall, Vice President of Data Science at Routeware. At the Summit, he advised attendees to double down on data organization and management using industry-standard tools and best practices.

It’s an apt metaphor. Like raw, unprocessed oil, data in and of itself is of little value. Data must also be extracted, cleansed, and refined before value is realized. And, like oil, organizations that can accumulate data at scale hold an operational advantage, especially with the advent of AI. This distinction is not lost on a growing cadre of data-minded civic officials and business leaders. Among them is Michael Shaw, the director of public works for Kansas City, Missouri. The veteran city official is a respected voice for institutional innovation through waste management data and technology. “There’s no department in our city that has more responsibility to our community than public works,” Shaw said at the 2025 Routeware Summit. He credits Routeware SmartCity for helping transform resident perceptions of the city’s public works department by using data to drive what he calls “intentional outcomes.” When Shaw’s team rolled out SmartCity to its solid waste group, citywide citizen satisfaction rose 17%, with increases of up to 80% in some areas. The city also saw some $2.5 million in cost savings from the move.

One of the challenges we are trying to solve is ‘How can we get all this data in one place?’ AI cannot work its magic if you have data sitting in all different places.”

Vighnesh Lall Vice President of Data Science, Routeware

Data in Action: A 5-City Overview It’s easy to discuss data in the abstract because, in many ways, it is abstract. You can’t touch it. You can’t see it. You can’t hold it in a bag and say, ‘Here it is.’ Instead, data must be understood through outcomes, such as keeping a high-value garbage truck up and running through a gauntlet of potential breakdown scenarios. Or, reducing demand on 311 call center staff by implementing a change that results in a dramatic drop-off in missed pick-up complaints. Here’s a look at the transformative power of data as seen through the experience of five waste and recycling departments:

DALLAS, TX

VEHICLE FLEET SIZE: 197

SERVICE AREA: 240,000 households across 156 routes

DATA-BASED OUTCOME: Routeware implementation yielded a 35% reduction in missed collections and improved driver productivity.

ATLANTA, GA

VEHICLE FLEET SIZE: 89

SERVICE AREA: 100,000 households

DATA-BASED OUTCOME: Telematics-supported predictive vehicle maintenance reduced major truck repairs by 30%, saving the city $2.5 million in annual maintenance and repair expenses (from $9.0 million to $6.5 million).

KANSAS CITY, MO

VEHICLE FLEET SIZE: 80

SERVICE AREA: 162,000 households

DATA-BASED OUTCOME: Routeware helped the city save $2.5 million in in trash collection alone.

HOUSTON, TX

VEHICLE FLEET SIZE: 250

SERVICE AREA: 423,000 households

DATA-BASED OUTCOME: Surging resident interest and engagement in educational activities such as shredding and mulching events helped stoke broader household compliance.

LOVELAND, CO

VEHICLE FLEET SIZE: 32

SERVICE AREA: 24,000+ single-family, duplex, and triplex households

DATA-BASED OUTCOME: Routeware reduced the number of stops per route by 30% and set the threshold for adding new routes at 1,100 stops, along with equipping drivers with city M&R documentation tools (identifying potholes, broken curbs, missing/damaged signs, faded striping, etc.).

Data: A Catalyst for Operational Excellence

1. Cleanse data. Is it accurate? Up to date? Complete? Consistent? Reliable?

2. Start with a pilot. Take small, manageable steps.

3. Identify a single, simple business issue to solve. (Hint: Think low-hanging fruit.) 4. What report do you want to see? Should it anticipate public release and/or review by elected officials? 5. T est a small sample size, say 2-4 waste/recycling collection trucks.

As the industry uses technology to simplify and enhance the collection process, it’s worth reflecting on the benefits a data-centric perspective offers fleet operators, including:

• Actionable insights • Proactive planning • Cost savings • New revenue sources • Operational effectiveness • Delighted residents • Cross-department collaboration • Sustainability gains

6. Check the results to see if they correlate with fleet rollout.

As you consider your options, the team at Routeware is at your service to answer questions, offer ideas, and show you how respected industry peers have confidently put their data journey in motion. You’ll see how 1,500 Routeware customers serving 88 million residents put data into action every collection day with tested, proven technologies that trans- form the science of the possible in waste and recycling operations. 7. Keep field and office staff fully informed of intent and timetable. 8. Select a data partner with the technology, discipline, expertise, and experience to deliver meaningful, authoritative results.

It may seem like an ambitious agenda, but the experience shows the goals are surprisingly accessible and attainable. This eight-step roadmap is a proven way forward if you’re looking to modernize your waste management process.

Optimize Waste Collection Performance

Imagine for a moment a solid waste and recycling world with no route sheets, minimal customer calls (“Hey, you missed my house!”), near-zero go-backs, and happier drivers. It’s a world where you can count on at least a dozen ways to optimize routes, vehicles, schedules, and ROI — all repeatedly researched and verified across tens of thousands of collection days. Hundreds of U.S. cities already live that dream, thanks to the work of public and private haulers. Your peers in communities large and small assessed their options and chose to improve the lives of route drivers, supervisors, managers, city officials, and customers with digital performance, speed, and simplicity. As you consider your next steps, keep the proven performance of Routeware SmartCity , ReCollect , and Elements in mind. Test it with a pilot program of 10 vehicles or less. See for yourself how it yields expected and unexpected results for your operation. To learn how Routeware can help your organization digitize routes, workflows, and more, visit routeware.com.

88 M Residents Covered

18 K Trucks Using Our Technology

2.3 B Recycling Notifications

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