According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of waste collection points fitted with smart waste sensor technology reached 657,000 worldwide in 2020 (excluding China).
Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.8 percent, the number will increase to 2.4 million by 2025. These wirelessly connected fill-level sensors can be either pre-integrated into waste bins and containers, for example as a smart bin offering, or retrofitted on existing collection points. Europe accounts for more than 50 percent of the installed base with markets such as the Benelux, France, the UK, Spain and the Nordics in the lead.
The installed base in the North American market meanwhile reached 209,000 units in 2020. The Rest of World market excluding China will at the same time have the highest growth rate of 36.5 percent and reach a total of more than half a million installed sensors in 2025.
Having seen some outstanding growth in the private sector in North America, US-based Compology has emerged as the world’s leading smart waste sensor technology vendor, accounting for around 22 percent of the total installed base (excluding China) at the end of 2020. The US-based smart bin provider Bigbelly ranked as the second largest player while the Finnish smart waste sensor and software specialist Enevo was the third largest in terms of installed base.
The top 10 smart waste sensor technology vendors also included Waste Vision from the Netherlands; BH Technologies and the SUEZ subsidiary Sigrenea from France; Sensoneo from Slovakia; TST Sistemas from Spain; Evreka from Turkey; and Ecube Labs from South Korea. Together, the top ten vendors accounted for around 50 percent of the global installed base of waste collection points featuring smart waste sensor technology. The companies in the market oftentimes focus on specific customer segments and therefore face varying degrees of competition from each other.
Along with market growth and the increasing number of market participants, many companies are now evolving their offerings to distinguish themselves from the crowd.
Levi Ostling, smart cities analyst, Berg Insight, said: “While the early days of the industry focused primarily on the deployment of the fill-level sensor technology itself, it is now clear that the sophistication and breadth of the accompanying software is becoming a key success factor in the smart waste sensor technology market.”
Cellular communications remains the most popular connectivity technology choice, accounting for three quarters of the connected waste collection points in 2020.
Mr. Ostling concluded:
“Cellular LPWA (NB-IoT and LTE-M) is expected to surpass conventional cellular 2G/3G/4G technologies as the leading connectivity type for smart waste sensors in 2023 and hit the milestone of 1 million connected end points during 2025.”
