Edinburgh data firm Topolytics bags major contract

Edinburgh-based data analytics firm Topolytics has won a £500,000 contract to build the UK’s first digital waste tracking system in a project billed as “truly ground-breaking”.

From left: Alastair Hanlon, chief commercial officer of PragmatIC, and Michael Groves of Topolytics. Picture: gavinpriestley.com.

The system will monitor and analyse all waste transactions across the UK every year and will enable the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) and environmental regulators to generate an up-to-date view of patterns of waste movements, enable better oversight, drive improvements in the waste system and support efforts to counter waste crime.

It will track waste from households, local authorities, businesses and the construction sector, and will tackle data from many sources, including invoicing records, weighbridge and bin-weighing systems, vehicle telematics, “internet of bins” sensors, and smart labelling systems.

The contract is administered by Defra under the UK GovTech Catalyst programme and Topolytics will work again with the Ordnance Survey and new partners Google Cloud and SAP to build a working version of a data-driven tracking system. Additionally, a key collaborator will be PragmatIC, whose radio frequency identification labels will be used to track the movement of used tyres.

"It further validates our use of machine learning, mapping, sensor systems and cutting-edge software to enable the waste industry to maximise the utility of materials and enable the circular economy.”