Blog posts about WasteWorks

Earlier this month we hosted one of our WasteWorks user group events, bringing together the community of councils using the solution to catch up, share experiences and learn from one another.

As part of the event, we ran through some of the new features and improvements that have been added to WasteWorks over the last few months, including:

Small items collections

Working with the London Borough of Sutton, we introduced functionality for their residents to be able to book collections for small items, such as batteries and coffee pods.

As with any functionality built into WasteWorks, the small items collections booking service has been adapted around Sutton’s individual requirements, integrations and operational processes. Read more about it.

Bulky waste collections

Meanwhile, with the London Borough of Bexley, we made it possible for residents to sign up to and pay for a bulky waste collection.

API integrations into the Whitespace Work Software in-cab system and the Capita Pay360 payment service used by Bexley enable a self-service workflow for residents and for staff using WasteWorks on behalf of those who need support. Learn more.

Viewing all reports at a property

It’s often the small things that make the biggest difference, and that is certainly true of the new ‘All reports here’ button, enabling members of staff to quickly navigate to a page viewing all reports for a particular property from a WasteWorks report.

Improvements to collection calendars

Each WasteWorks installation gives users the ability to download their waste collection schedule to an online calendar. We’ve introduced a new calendar help page to make it clearer what options are available, including direct links for popular tools, such as Apple or Google calendars.

Plus, the calendar files themselves are now being cached more often to help deal with wayward calendar applications, and reduce the load on some backend systems.

A bit of form housekeeping

For councils who manage bulky waste collections through WasteWorks, we’ve tidied up the page of the form on which users can add items to be collected, making it look neater and adding more space.

The same has been applied to the emails sent out when a booking is made, ensuring a tidier display of items to be collected.

Add to homepage advice

WasteWorks is a progressive web app (PWA), which means it can be used as a normal web service or downloaded to mobile devices to be used as an app. Each council’s version of WasteWorks now comes with a dedicated page to help guide users through the process of saving the service as an app on their device.

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Want to know more about WasteWorks? Get in touch.

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Residents in the London Borough of Sutton can now use the council’s version of WasteWorks to book a collection for small items, such as batteries and coffee pods.

We launched Sutton’s WasteWorks service in 2022, providing residents and contact centre staff with an easy way to access waste services associated with a property’s address online. 

Initial functionality comprised self-service bin day checks, problem reports and new bin requests, as well as garden waste subscriptions and payments – all facilitated by API integration with the Selected Interventions Echo in-cab system and payment provider Barclaycard.

Subsequent development work has enabled residents to also use WasteWorks to make bookings for bulky waste collections. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, other work has involved a migration of Sutton’s WasteWorks to a new version of Echo and a change of payment provider to Capita Pay360.

Small items collections

As with any functionality built into WasteWorks, the small items collections booking service has been adapted around Sutton’s individual requirements and operational processes.

Users can select from a list of items included in the service and book a time slot according to availability, the data for which is shared through the integration with Echo. A photograph and/or text description of the location where the item(s) will be left for collection can be optionally provided.

Each request created via WasteWorks is automatically sent into Echo once the booking has been confirmed for staff and contractors to manage directly. Email notifications are sent to users to confirm their booking and to act as a reminder of the upcoming collection.

Within specified timeframes, users can also cancel a booking for a small item collection or report that a collection has been missed from within the same workflow. Cancellations or missed collection reports are shared directly to Echo and corresponding updates or confirmations returned to the user automatically via email. 

Paul Brockwell, Head of Waste and Street Cleaning at London Borough of Sutton, said: “In a significant stride towards environmental sustainability and a circular economy, the London Borough of Sutton proudly unveiled its new bookable small items recycling collection service in October 2025. This initiative empowers residents with a convenient and efficient way to recycle small electrical items, textiles, and batteries, directly contributing to the council’s ambitious goals of enhanced recycling and resource recovery.

“The introduction of this service marks a pivotal moment in Sutton’s ongoing commitment to fostering a more sustainable community. By providing an accessible and user-friendly system for the collection of these specific waste streams, the council aims to divert a substantial volume of material, thereby reducing environmental impact and promoting the re-use of valuable resources. This service is a testament to Sutton’s dedication to creating a truly circular economy, where waste is minimised and resources are kept in use for as long as possible.

“This achievement would not have been possible without the invaluable partnership and tireless dedication of SocietyWorks. Their exceptional expertise in developing and refining the WasteWorks platform proved instrumental in facilitating the seamless integration and operation of this fantastic new service. The WasteWorks platform provides the digital infrastructure that enables residents to easily schedule collections, track their requests, and access information, ensuring a smooth and efficient process for all users.

“The London Borough of Sutton is confident that this new service will build upon its already impressive recycling rate, further solidifying its position as a leading borough in environmental stewardship. The ability for residents to conveniently schedule collections for these often-overlooked small items is expected to significantly increase participation in recycling efforts, ultimately leading to a greener and more sustainable future for the entire borough. This service is not just about waste collection; it’s about empowering residents to actively participate in building a more resilient and environmentally conscious community.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said: “It’s been a pleasure to work in partnership with the team at the London Borough of Sutton on this functionality. We are proud to offer a service like WasteWorks that is capable of adapting to councils’ changing needs as and when they are ready, creating sustainable digital transformation.”

The next stage of our phased rollout of WasteWorks for the London Borough of Bexley has been completed, incorporating into the service the ability for residents to sign up to and pay for a bulky waste collection.

API integrations into the Whitespace Work Software in-cab system and the Capita Pay360 payment service used by Bexley enable a self-service workflow for residents and for staff using WasteWorks on behalf of those who need support.

As with all co-branded instances of WasteWorks, Bexley’s version of the service has been configured to meet its exact requirements.

“Residents now benefit from a modernised booking system that replaces the previous workaround via the Contact Centre, reducing call volumes and improving self-service access.”

– London Borough of Bexley

For the bulky waste functionality, as well as standard features such as the ability to check available collection slots before finalising a booking, Bexley also benefits from enhanced, council-specific features, including a pricing structure based on points and alternative pricing for state pension recipients. Additional alternative pricing will be made available for Saturday collections.  

WasteWorks also enables Bexley to provide residents with collection reference numbers, and email notifications for confirmations, cancellations, status updates and reminders. The service also collects accurate information on the location and accessibility of items to be collected for collection teams.

The addition of bulky waste to Bexley’s WasteWorks service means that residents can now use it to access the following services:

• Check bin days on-demand;
• Track the status of collections;
• Add waste collection days to a smartphone or computer online calendar (they update automatically when changes are made);
• Report missed collections;
• Request a new rubbish or recycling bin;
• Request a replacement bin;
• Request the removal of a bin (without needing to request a new one);
• Sign up and pay for a bulky waste collection.

Supporting statement from the London Borough of Bexley:

“The London Borough of Bexley is proud to announce the successful implementation of the Special Bulky Waste service into WasteWorks, delivered by SocietyWorks. This milestone marks a significant enhancement in the borough’s digital waste management capabilities, offering residents a streamlined and user-friendly way to book and pay for bulky waste collections online.

“The project, delivered in close collaboration with SocietyWorks, Bexley’s Digital Team, Contact Centre and Environmental Services, has been met with enthusiastic uptake since its launch.

“Residents now benefit from a modernised booking system that replaces the previous workaround via the Contact Centre, reducing call volumes and improving self-service access.”

About WasteWorks

WasteWorks launched in 2021 and was co-designed with the London Borough of Bromley, where its intelligent features have helped the Council to achieve a 40% drop in avoidable customer contacts about waste services.

Shortlisted for the Public/Private Partnership Award at the LGC Awards 2022, WasteWorks is designed as a Progressive Web App (PWA). This means it functions beautifully on any device, and can be downloaded to mobile devices to be used as an app, without the need to maintain a separate app codebase.

Find out more about WasteWorks.

Being a supplier of technology that sits at the frontend of public services, one of the key promises we make to our customers is that we will accommodate the need for changes made to any backend systems with which we integrate while keeping things consistent for members of the public. 

A recent example of this is the work we’ve been doing in collaboration with the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames and the London Borough of Sutton. 

Both councils use our WasteWorks solution to manage online access to residential waste services and have been navigating a migration to a new version of their integrated in-cab system Echo.

In-cab integrations

For both councils, an API integration between WasteWorks and the Selected Interventions Echo in-cab system, used by the two councils’ waste provider Veolia, facilitates a two-way flow of data from council, to supplier, to resident and back again.

This enables residents to self-serve access to real-time data in order to:

• Check their bin days; 
• Monitor whether their bin has been collected yet;
• Find out why a collection was not taken;
• Report problems with collections; 
• Request new or extra containers; 
• Pay for subscriptions to green and bulky waste collections;
• And more according to the needs of the individual council.

As we do with any new integration, we worked in partnership with the teams at each council to map out the processes needed for sharing data to and from their new versions of Echo and test them out in staging.

Taking this approach means we can ensure everything works as expected so that, upon turning one integration off and turning the new one on, residents using the councils’ branded installations of WasteWorks are unaware anything has changed.

Adaptable technology

No two councils use WasteWorks or their integrated systems in exactly the same way – even ones that are neighbours and share the same in-cab system like Kingston and Sutton.

For Kingston, the integration with its updated installation of Echo incorporates a new pricing structure for new container requests. Payments for Kingston are facilitated via their integrated payment provider Capita Pay360.

A spokesperson at Kingston Council said: “We are ambitious in our plans to further enhance waste and recycling services while advancing our green credentials.

“Kingston has the fourth highest recycling rate in London, with over 840,000 collections taking place monthly.

“We are pleased to be continuing to work alongside WasteWorks to deliver an efficient and reliable service for our residents.”

Meanwhile, Sutton’s updated integration with Echo incorporates numerous other changes including the ability for residents to report a spillage incident or the misplacement of a bin following a collection.  

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said: “Residential waste services require flexibility and we are very committed to providing it through WasteWorks. 

“I am proud that we have been able to support the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames and the London Borough of Sutton through this changeover period, accommodating their individual needs while maintaining business as usual standards of service for residents.”

Part of our promise to our public sector customers is that we will integrate our solutions with any combination of back office systems. 

This commitment to facilitating interoperability extends to single sign-on (SSO) identity providers, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Azure Active Directory).

SSO integrations into our solutions enable councils and other public sector organisations to make it easier for authorised staff to log in using existing SSO credentials. 

Existing SSO accounts for residents can also be incorporated into the integration, meaning they only ever need to have one set of log-in details to access digital council services.

Integration with SSO also reduces the administration associated with setting up staff user accounts for larger teams. Existing account roles associated with an authority staff member’s SSO identity can be mapped to corresponding roles on, say, FixMyStreet Pro or WasteWorks, to automate the account creation and permission-setting process.

To connect with an SSO identity provider, we use an OpenID Connect-compliant endpoint.

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For customers wanting to discuss setting up an SSO integration into your installation of a SocietyWorks solution, please speak to your account manager. 

If you’re not yet a customer of SocietyWorks but you would like to find out more, you can request a demo with our team.

Residents in the London Borough of Bexley can now use the Council’s dedicated version of our WasteWorks service to request new or replacement rubbish and recycling bins, and to request the removal of an existing bin.

This is the second phase of an ongoing transformation project we are undertaking in partnership with Bexley, the first of which completed earlier this year and included an API integration into Whitespace Work Software, the in-cab system used by the Council. 

The addition of rubbish and recycling bin maintenance to Bexley’s WasteWorks service means that residents can now use it to access the following services:

• Check bin days on-demand;
• Add waste collection days to a smartphone or computer online calendar (they update automatically when changes are made);
• Report missed collections;
• Request a new rubbish or recycling bin;
• Request a replacement bin;
• Request the removal of a bin (without needing to request a new one).

Future phases of the project will introduce functionality for bulky and garden waste services, assisted collection requests and clinical waste collections.

Rob Flicker, Project Lead and Digital Manager at London Borough of Bexley, said: “The London Borough of Bexley have been busy working on the new Waste solution to improve our resident journey, providing an easy-to-use reporting tool and full integration with our Waste Management system.

“Bexley’s project team have launched the replacement bins service for Bexley residents as part of the new functionality within WasteWorks.

“The SocietyWorks team have delivered an excellent product that enables Bexley residents to order new bins and request for existing bins to be collected. The system offers an easy-to-use user interface, displays clear real-time status updates and dates for this service. 

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Society Works Team for getting the replacement bins feature Waste Works solution live on-time and on-budget.”

Reducing avoidable contact with WasteWorks

Through its connection to Whitespace Work Software, Bexley is able to manage resident expectations and reduce avoidable contact by displaying detailed information and service updates to users about the collections associated with their property. See an example below:

Where information surfaced from the in-cab system shows that there was a problem with the way the waste was presented, the ‘missed collection’ report feature is disabled and relevant information will be shared with the resident to explain why.

About WasteWorks

WasteWorks launched in 2021 and was co-designed with the London Borough of Bromley, where its intelligent features have helped the Council to achieve a 40% drop in avoidable customer contacts about waste services.

Shortlisted for the Public/Private Partnership Award at the LGC Awards 2022, WasteWorks is designed as a Progressive Web App (PWA). This means it functions beautifully on any device, and can be downloaded to mobile devices to be used as an app, without the need to maintain a separate app codebase.

Find out more about WasteWorks.

We’re delighted to be providing the London Borough of Bexley with a dedicated installation of WasteWorks, our integrated front-end residential waste portal.

We are working in partnership with Bexley using agile methodologies to provide a phased roll out of WasteWorks.

The first phase of this project delivers the initial functionality of the service, including an API integration into the Council’s in-cab system, which is provided by Whitespace Work Software. This enables residents to check their bin days on-demand, and report missed collections within specified timeframes (e.g. only after the waste crew has completed its round).

Following this, future phases of the project will introduce functionality including bulky and green garden waste subscriptions, new container and assisted collection requests, clinical waste collections and more. 

WasteWorks is the second SocietyWorks solution chosen by Bexley, where FixMyStreet Pro has been providing an easy way for residents to report local street, highway and environment problems since 2019. The two services will sit alongside each other, sharing the same accessible and user-friendly design.

Rob Flicker, Project Lead and Digital Manager at London Borough of Bexley, said: “Bexley were looking for a new Waste solution to improve our resident journey, providing an easy-to-use reporting tool and full integration with our Waste Management system. We evaluated several different options and selected WasteWorks as the best fit for Bexley.

“The first phase of the project delivered by SocietyWorks was to provide residents with a Bin Collection Day look up together with the ability to report Missed Bins as part of the new functionality. The SocietyWorks team have delivered an excellent product that provides Bexley’s residents with an easy-to-use reporting tool and displays clear real-time status updates for this service.

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank the SocietyWorks Team for getting the WasteWorks solution live on-time and on-budget. I am looking forward to working with them to implement the Garden Waste and Replacement Containers services for the next phase of this project implementation.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said: “Providing simple, self-service digital access to residential waste services is essential for local authorities looking to improve service delivery while keeping costs down. We’re so pleased to be working with the team at Bexley on this project, and look forward to seeing the impact WasteWorks makes.”

Mike Nicholls, Chief Commercial Officer at Whitespace Work Software, said: “Whitespace Work Software plays a crucial role in our mission to modernise waste management services for the London Borough of Bexley. Through API integration into the WasteWorks portal, residents will benefit from seamless access to vital information regarding bin days and reporting missed collections.”

About WasteWorks

WasteWorks launched in 2021 and was co-designed with the London Borough of Bromley, where its intelligent features have helped the Council to achieve a 40% drop in avoidable customer contacts about waste services.

Shortlisted for the Public/Private Partnership Award at the LGC Awards 2022, WasteWorks is designed as a Progressive Web App (PWA). This means it functions beautifully on any device, and can be downloaded to mobile devices to be used as an app, without the need to maintain a separate app codebase.

Find out more about WasteWorks here.

At SocietyWorks we believe in transparency. One of the ways we live this value is by working in the open, and giving our team members space on our blog to write about what they’re working on, something they’re interested in or even perhaps a mistake or challenge they’ve learned from.

In this blog post our Head of Development, Matthew Somerville, writes about a new waste container generator for our WasteWorks solution which uses CSS to make it easier to generate waste images tailored to individual councils’ branding and bin types.

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WasteWorks is in use by a number of different councils, all of which have their own types of bin, in various colours and sizes (you can see a large array of photos of bins in use by local councils at the lovely govbins.uk site). An image of each type of bin associated with a property is displayed to residents from the WasteWorks homepage.

Our designer Lucas came up with some nice simple iconography for us to use on bin day pages, including domestic wheelie bins, communal bins, sacks and boxes. When we’ve had a new client, whose bins are differently coloured to any previous council, Lucas has been providing us with new PNG images to match the bins the council uses, exported from the source vector images. As well as the right colours, each PNG had to be provided at two different sizes, to work with high-resolution displays, and so we’ve built up a small collection of such bin images over the years.

These pictures only vary by colour (and the presence of a recycling logo), so I wondered if there was a better way we could generate these images. SVGs are vector graphics – they scale to any resolution, and importantly for this can be styled with CSS, the same mechanism used to style a web page. CSS also has “variables”, where you can define e.g. a variable to be a particular colour, and then use that variable in a different part of the document (or SVG image).

Lucas and I worked together to come up with SVGs for the various containers, which instead of specifying any fill colours directly, used one or more CSS variables to specify the colours. For the recycling logo, we set a variable for the opacity of the logo – defaulting to 0, so invisible, but we can set it to 1 to have it appear.

We’ve added a page to our user manual where you can play around with the colour of our new bin images in real time:
https://www.societyworks.org/manuals/wasteworks/container-picture-generator/ :-)

More technical details

The header of our domestic wheelie bin SVG looks something like this:

<svg class="waste-service-image">
 <style>
  .wheel { fill: #333333; }
  .main { fill: var(--primary-color, var(--default-color)); }
  .lid { fill: var(--lid-color, var(--primary-color, var(--default-color))); }
  .recycling-logo { fill: #ffffff; opacity: var(--recycling-logo, 0); }
 </style>
 ...

See that the CSS uses the var() fallback parameter so that the lid colour will e.g. default to the primary colour if not specified.

We used CSS mix-blend-modes in order to have shadows and highlights that would work regardless of the colour they were placed on top of; here’s an example shadow:

<g style="mix-blend-mode:multiply" opacity="0.12">
  <path fill="black" d="M95.1227 90.7581L120.495 681.301H79.3654L50.9626 90.7581H95.1227Z">
</g>

Then when we embed an SVG in someone’s bin day page, the web page itself, outside the image, can specify what colour to use by setting the corresponding CSS variable, and the picture will then appear in the right colours. When we have a new bin colour, we don’t need to create a new image, only set the right colour.

Here’s the outline of an SVG on a bin day page, for a grey bin with a blue lid, showing the recycling logo:

<span style="--primary-color: #767472; --lid-color: #00A6D2; --recycling-logo: 1;">
 <svg class="waste-service-image">
  <style>
   [... style as above ...]
  </style>
  [...]
 </svg>
</span>

As an organisation we talk a lot about how our civic tech products are able to flex around individual authorities’ needs. This is not something we say because it sounds good; it is a commitment from us.

Take our residential waste management portal WasteWorks as an example. 

A waste service that works for everyone

WasteWorks is a front-end SaaS product which integrates with in-cab systems to simplify online access to all waste services associated with a property’s address, such as checking your bin days, ordering a new container or reporting a problem with a collection.

We built the core WasteWorks service in 2021 in collaboration with the London Borough of Bromley, who wanted to reduce the amount of unnecessary contact they were receiving about residential waste services caused by their existing processes. 

With that goal in mind, we equipped WasteWorks with the ability to not only let residents self-serve up-to-date information about their waste collections (including being able to download a live schedule to their device’s calendar), but also to ensure that reports of, for example, missed collections can only be made after the crew has completed their rounds.

Since launching for Bromley, WasteWorks has consistently achieved a 40% drop in unnecessary contact, and made the final of the LGC Awards 2022 in the Public/Private Partnership category. 

As more authorities have adopted the service, we have continued to add new functionality in alignment with the needs of our community of users, including:

• Green garden waste subscriptions – enabling residents to subscribe to and pay for green waste collections
• Bulky waste collection bookings – residents can book and pay for a one-off collection or subscribe to repeat collections if required
• Small item collections – take bookings for the collection of small items, such as batteries and textiles
• Assisted collection requests – let residents request help from your waste crew with their bin collection(s)
• New container payments – take payments for new containers when requested by residents

The implementation of these features differs per council, adapting to their different rules, workflows and seasonal circumstances. 

For example, where an authority needs to understand what and how many containers a property already has we are able to add in extra questions to gather this information.

In other instances, where an authority experiences shortages of sacks, we are able to give council staff the ability to temporarily switch off orders and communicate transparently. 

The future

Each council using WasteWorks has made it their own, with slightly different configurations to make it exactly what they need.

We can facilitate this because our software is built with local authority differences in mind. We have learned from delivering our long-running street and environment reporting service FixMyStreet Pro across over 30 authorities that even when the goal is the same, the approach can differ. We embed that flexibility into all of our products.

In terms of new developments, we will continue to be led by our users (both residents and staff) following our citizen-centred design principles. User groups enable us to bring everyone together to discuss ideas, while customers have the opportunity to log suggestions through our helpdesk service at any time. 

Waste is a service area that will be subject to much change over the coming years in response to new regulations and legislation aimed at helping us respond to climate change.  

However requirements change, we will be there to support our local authority clients along the journey.

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If you’d like a conversation about transforming online access to residential waste services with scalable open source software, get in touch.

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Image: Abel Matthew via Pexels

Following the recent implementation of WasteWorks in the London boroughs of Kingston and Sutton, both councils’ versions of the service can now be used by residents to book bulky waste collections online.

WasteWorks was chosen by Kingston and Sutton in 2022 as part of a programme of ongoing improvements to residential waste services for both boroughs. The service is already used by residents to easily and conveniently access information about their bin days, report problems with collections, request new containers and subscribe to green waste collections.

The addition of the bulky waste collection functionality incorporates another aspect of the councils’ waste service into WasteWorks’ user-friendly interface, which was designed in collaboration with Bromley Council to simplify access to residential waste online and reduce avoidable customer contact.

For Kingston and Sutton, WasteWorks is integrated with the Selected Interventions Echo in-cab system, which is used by Veolia, the waste contractor for both councils. This integration enables a seamless two-way flow of data between residents and Veolia, sharing up-to-date information about waste collections, such as when a bin will next be collected, or why a collection was missed, and enabling residents to reserve available collection slots for bulky waste.

To allow residents to pay for their collections within the same workflow, WasteWorks is also integrated with the Capita Pay 360 payment system for Kingston, and the Barclaycard system for Sutton. 

Residents can also use WasteWorks to report a missed bulky collection and submit cancellation requests.

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks, said: “The delivery of WasteWorks for Kingston and Sutton has been a significant collaborative effort between SocietyWorks, Kingston and Sutton, Selected Interventions and Veolia. All parties share a dedication to improving waste services for residents, and we are thrilled to be able to support them with this with scalable, citizen-centred technology.” 

Find out more about WasteWorks here.