Cleaning up campuses the green and smart way. The top four universities in Korea: Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, and Dongguk University wanted a smart city waste management solution that would allow them to keep campuses clean while keeping costs down. Traditional bins often faced the overflow of waste, which led to more littering across campuses. They couldn’t afford to increase the frequency of waste collection.

The universities came to Ecube Labs because the waste compaction that the Clean Cube provided using solar energy allowed it to increase bin capacity by six to eight times. This meant that even with fewer bins, waste overflow can be prevented, leading to cleaner campuses for both students and visitors.

Additionally, Clean Cube smart bins are designed to promote environmental awareness. With clear signs and specially-fabricated bin openings that encourage single-stream recycling, Clean Cubes allow universities to achieve higher recycling diversion rates.

Due to the size of the universities, traditional bins were spread out across the campuses. Not knowing how full any of these bins were meant that waste collection operators had to collect all of the bins on a regular schedule.

Clean City Networks (CCN) provided immense value by providing waste operators a way to monitor the status and fill-level of the smart bins in real-time, allowing them to schedule their collections for only the bins that required collection.

Additionally, CCN optimizes waste collection by calculating the fastest way to collect all the bins that require collection. This results in shorter collection trips, which means less fuel and maintenance costs for waste collection vehicles.

Dean of the United Campus Sustainability Office Kim Jang Hee praised the effectiveness of the Clean Cubes, saying that “Ecube Labs uses smart technology to allow university campuses to more efficiently provide waste collection services. Their solutions not only save universities money by reducing required labor, time, and fuel, but it also ensures cleaner public areas and encourages people to recycle.”