Needham, Mass.-based Bigbelly, a producer of smart waste and recycling systems, recapped the company's growth in 2017.

Deployed across all 50 states, the Canadian provinces and more than 50 countries, Bigbelly says it completed 13,709,539 compactions, 2,456,062 collections and 18,304,538 IoT connections last year.
 
"We are proud to partner with so many global communities leveraging technology to modernize a core service," Bigbelly CEO Brian Phillips said in a statement. "Smart waste management is a proven, measurable, and easy-to-implement component of successful smart cities, campuses and buildings. Our platform is the world leading entry point to these smart initiatives."

Notable installs and expansions in global municipalities in 2017 included Alhambra, Calif.; Antwerp; Atlanta; Athens, Ohio; Cannes, France; Culver City, Calif; Dubai, UAE; El Paso Sun Metro, TX; Hoorne, Netherlands; Jupiter, FL; Jurong Town Council, Singapore; London (City and Croydon Council); Long Beach, Calif.; Los Angeles; Miami Beach; Montreal, Montclair, N.J.; Nambucca Shire, Australia; New Haven, Conn.; New York City; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Prague; Quincy, Mass.; Redding, Calif.; Richmond, Calif.;  Riverside, Calif.; San Francisco (Yerba Buena CBD and Union Square); Stockholm; Warwick, R.I.; and Wharf District, Washington D.C.; and deployments throughout Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, New Zealand and Norway.

College campuses now benefiting from measurable sustainability and cleanliness include Cal State LA; UC Berkeley; Loyola University; Mount Ida College; Seattle Central College; University of Florida; and University of Illinois at Chicago. Private sector organizations such as Wakefern's Village Supermarkets, Wegmans Food Markets, Navy Pier in Chicago, Cedar Point Amusement Park, and CBRE all leverage Bigbelly in their facilities to automate much of the work related to trash collection.

Bigbelly's product innovation include the launch of CLEAN 5.0 launch in June–an upgrade to the system's software platform. The product suite expanded with a new standard capacity smart bin that debuted in September. All smart stations now have options such as wheeled lift bins and an enclosed hopper design for a right-fit solution in every environment.

The company invested in innovating the smart waste solution as a multi-purpose infrastructure capable of hosting additional technologies. Bigbelly engaged telecommunications industry expert Alex Gamota as senior vice president, information and communication technologies to drive the aggressive plans to bring this platform to market in 2018. Bigbelly validated this vision at leading industry events such as IOTSWC, SCEWC, and MWC Americas.

"We are extending our value by hosting wireless equipment within our core city infrastructure," Phillips said.  "Working with strategic telecommunication partners, we can drive Smart City initiatives that modernize waste management and solve problems from the digital divide to bandwidth deficits in dense urban areas."