Transforming Waste and Recycling Services Through Digital Innovation

Transforming Waste and Recycling Services Through Digital Innovation

A local authority in London partnered with us to design and implement a new digital waste and recycling service, benefiting over 225,000 residents.

The collaboration began with an intensive two-week Embarrk workshop, leading directly into a fixed-term development engagement. The service was delivered on schedule, through our Rapid Digitisation approach, with clear stakeholder involvement throughout.

Customer

The council supports a diverse urban population and plays a central role in delivering public services from housing to environmental care. With a focus on continual improvement, the council is committed to enhancing its digital capabilities as part of a broader transformation programme.

This includes the development of a flexible, open-systems-based technology platform that enables better service delivery to residents, businesses, and internal teams. Collaboration at both regional and national levels is a key principle, ensuring improved service choice, better value, and stronger adoption of open standards in the public sector.

Residential population in excess of 225,000

Created in 1963 by London Government Act

Continuously improving its digital customer service

Collaborating at a regional and national level

Situation

As part of its digital roadmap, the council aimed to modernise a set of core public-facing services under its Customer Access Portfolio. These include everyday interactions such as paying rent, registering to vote, and managing waste and recycling collections.

The goal was to offer a digital experience that allows repeat users to self-serve efficiently cutting operational costs and reducing reliance on traditional contact channels, such as the call centre.

In need of a digital upgrade to its services

All common services and transactions needed improving with online accessibility

Required a high-quality, self-service, digital experience for its users

Needed to cut costs and free up council resources

Solution

Our engagement started with a discovery workshop to align technical and user requirements. Key stakeholders were involved early, helping define the scope and vision for the service.

A dedicated, distributed development team was then deployed to build and test the solution. Using a hybrid Agile delivery model, we maintained momentum while meeting critical deadlines and budgetary expectations.

Communication remained a priority throughout. An on-site coordinator supported day-to-day collaboration, and regular ‘show and tell’ sessions enabled continuous feedback and iterative improvement.

In line with the council’s emphasis on cost-effectiveness and long-term sustainability, the service was built on a secure, scalable architecture using open-source components such as JBoss ESB, JSF, and Liferay.

Two week EmbArrk workshop capturing project requirements and specifications

Cost effective hybrid Agile delivery model

Collaborative and efficient working procedures

User centred design incorporating new design language

Outcomes

The waste and recycling platform was the third major digital service delivered as part of the wider transformation journey, following similar upgrades to parking and housing services.

Crucially, the new platform provided a more consistent message to residents around waste reduction and recycling services. Though still early in adoption, it has already begun to reduce pressure on frontline teams by encouraging more users to switch to digital self-service.