The City of Melbourne is undertaking Australia's largest smart bin rollout, replacing all existing bins in the CBD with 500 solar-powered compacting bins for general waste and recycling in a five-year contract awarded to smart waste and recycling technology company Superfy after a successful pilot completed in 2025.
Installation has begun in September and will be completed by the end of November, with bins located across the CBD, Southbank and parks along the Yarra River.
The rollout of Superfy's platform will enable the City of Melbourne to phase out fixed-route collections replaced with on-demand pickups. Each Superfy S200 BriteBin manufactured by PEL and Installed and managed by Superfy, has solar-powered compaction and fill-level sensors that trigger a collection only when a bin reaches 85 per cent capacity, replacing fixed-route pickups with on-demand collections and directly cutting truck movements through the city. Any bin that reaches full capacity triggers a priority dispatch, while the sealed, non-touch design prevents spillage, pests and litter.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the new solar-powered bins will supercharge Melbourne's ability to keep the city sparkling.
Melbourne is putting its bins on the sunshine diet - powered by the sun, compacting more rubbish and telling our crews when they need emptying."
"Keeping our city clean is one of our fundamentals. Last year we removed more than 6,000 tonnes of rubbish from Melbourne's streets - almost 20 per cent more than the year before."
"These bins mean less wasted time, fewer unnecessary collections and more efficient cleaning, using smart technology to keep Melbourne looking its best."
"The new smart bins have sensors which alert our team to when they need be emptied."
"There's nothing worse than an overflowing bin, and the new technology will help us keep Melbourne clean and at its best."
Safety and Sustainability
Safety and accessibility are built into the bins which are able to hold 4 times the amount of waste a regular litter can by compacting it., The bins feature a contactless opening flap, integrated foot pedal, andevery unit is wheelchair accessible.
The AI-enabled Superfy platform gives provides insights to make decisions about collection frequency, bin placement and resourcing, and automatically reports recycling diversion rates.. The platform also gives visibility across the entire bin estate of more than 3,000 locations and will be used by collection partners to manage and schedule collections.
Superfy's committed targets for the contract include a 10 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, 20 per cent of transport delivered by low-emission vehicles, a 20 per cent year-on-year reduction in waste to landfill, and material recovery rates of 30 to 50 per cent, all reported annually.
Darren O'Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer, Superfy commended the council on its ambitions. "The City of Melbourne is a smart city leader, and we are delighted to have been chosen to help them with their smart waste and recycling management that will deliver significantly on costs and sustainability, a challenge for our whole industry", Darren says.
"Waste collection has traditionally been blind. Trucks run fixed routes on fixed schedules regardless of whether bins are full or empty, which means wasted fuel, unnecessary emissions and, at the other end, overflowing bins on busy weekends. Waste management providers also increasingly need to evidence their diversion rates, not just estimate them.
"Smart waste management solves both problems: you collect when you need to, and you can prove where every kilogram went. With our robust equipment and AI-enabled platform, we are delighted to help the City of Melbourne achieve their targets and create local jobs with our maintenance partners along the way", he adds.
Proven across Victoria and beyond
Founded in Australia and now headquartered at DCU:Innovate Hub in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in Adelaide and Wilmington, USA, Superfy currently manages more than 50,000 customer smart locations worldwide, including a documented track record of more than 12,000 bins deployed across Australia through corporate partnerships, facilities companies and councils.
Australian clients include Brimbank Council, Tea Tree Gully Council, Kiama Municipal Council, Ecobatt, Recycal Group, Venues NSW, the University of Sydney, Melbourne Airport and Vinnies, while internationally the company's municipal deployments include 800 smart bins for the City of La Coruña in Spain.
The Melbourne contract will be serviced by Superfy's local Melbourne team, supported by a Victorian warehouse and parts depot for fast servicing and turnaround, with operations run under ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 and 27001-aligned systems.
Superfy is supported in Australia and New Zealand by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government's trade and innovation agency. Eoin Hughes, Market Advisor Waste & Agribusiness comments: "Councils everywhere are under pressure to cut emissions and costs while keeping their cities clean, and Superfy's technology addresses all three at once. It's fantastic to see a Dublin-headquartered company win a contract of this significance with a smart city leader like the City of Melbourne, and we look forward to supporting their continued growth across Australia and New Zealand."
About us:
About Superfy: Superfy is a waste and recycling operations system that combines IoT sensors with cloud software to help organisations collect smarter. Its connected bins, asset trackers and fleet devices feed a single dashboard that turns fill levels, routes and vehicle data into optimised collection schedules and audit-ready ESG reporting. Councils, waste contractors and facilities management providers use Superfy to cut unnecessary collections, reduce emissions and evidence diversion rates. Founded in Australia, Superfy is headquartered at DCU:Innovate Hub in Dublin, Ireland, with an office in Adelaide, Australia. www.superfy.com
