From ownership to use, that is the core idea of the new concept SAFE. Within a decade or so, VConsyst foresees that municipalities and other waste collectors will no longer buy containers, but a service. Including maintenance, data collection, effective collection and so on. “It is a matter of thinking around,” knows Quirijn van Loon, deputy director of VConsyst, “but this will be the future.”
The underground collection container for household waste has been around for about thirty years. Of course, the product has improved over time, but the idea is unchanged. “In the Netherlands we have over 100,000 of them in the ground,” Van Loon said. “In every municipality they are different, because everyone wants something different. That is not conducive to reuse possibilities and efficiency.”

SAFE

If you want to move toward a circular economy, you will have to take bigger steps, VConsyst realized. Together with Bammens (now part of VConsyst) and crane supplier Hiab, the concept SAFE was devised. The abbreviation stands for Sustainable, As a service, Fixed price, Ease of mind. “We take care of the placement, emptying and maintenance of the underground containers. Municipalities pay a fixed amount per month and don’t have to worry about different specifications for purchasing, logistics, maintenance and so on,” Van Loon said. “They no longer buy products, but performance.”
The benefits of the usage concept are obvious. Van Loon: “Municipalities are unburdened and circularity is served. If we ourselves are and remain responsible for our product, we do design a little differently. Moreover, we can standardize the part that is under the ground. So that parts are interchangeable, the emptying system is identical. Thanks to SAFE, we can make a smart container, equipped with electronics and data collection as standard. With that you can organize the logistics optimally, inform your residents, plan maintenance, empty more silently by dosing.”

Noiseless

SAFE was conceived as a vision for circular waste collection. “We focused on four main lines,” Van Loon said. “It has to be autonomous, emission-free, silent and automated. Autonomous, with self-driving vehicles, and emission-free is not in our scope, we leave that to the vehicle manufacturers. But for noiseless and automated collection, we could work with our own products. That’s where our new container came from.” Hiab has developed a robotic crane as part of SAFE, which works more accurately than a driver. A good automated crane prevents collisions of metal to metal or pavement and thus works considerably quieter.
VConsyst and Hiab are working hard to introduce SAFE. “We have visited all major municipalities, they are very interested. Next year a field test is planned, after that we can start providing the first districts. In ten years, it could well be that everyone will have switched from owning to using. The concept is familiar from lighting and cars, among other things. You don’t buy a light bulb or a car, but office lighting or usage miles. It is a sustainable concept that has proven itself and is perfectly realizable in waste collection as well. In time you may be able to move to nighttime collection, so no one is bothered by crowds and noise. The possibilities are numerous and developments can be rapid.”