Case Study: Surrey Heath Borough Council achieves a 65% recycling collection rate (more than double) with Ordnance Survey mapping and GIS

Surrey Heath Borough Council - Customer Case Study

Surrey Heath Borough Council faced a major service redesign in 2009, moving from weekly black-sack collections to fortnightly alternating wheelie-bin and weekly food-waste collections while minimizing disruption to residents. The council worked with Ordnance Survey, leveraging OS MasterMap, OS Street View, OS VectorMap, oblique aerial photography and Local Land and Property Gazetteer (UPRN) data integrated in a CadCorp GIS to assess bin suitability, plan routes and avoid costly field inspections.

Ordnance Survey’s mapping and GIS tools delivered a 35,600-point waste collection dataset, enabled remote property-level assessments, and supported optimized crew allocations (the contractor supplied a new vehicle fleet). The result: recycling rates rose from 30% to 65% in one year, improved operational efficiency, better contact-centre and online self-service for residents, and a shortlist spot at the National Recycling Awards.

Surrey Heath Borough Council

Chas Bradfield

Deputy Chief Executive