New software will replace the paper binders guiding Pittsburgh’s recycling trucks since 2008.

The Department of Public Works (DPW) is ready to recycle the printed routes its drivers have been using for the last eight years.

Christopher Mitchell, project coordinator for environmental services, said during the May 6 committee meeting that the city has been transitioning to a new software program for DPW’s refuse and recycling routes. The routes were last updated in 2008, despite the city having access to route optimization software that it uses for snow removal. Those routes are provided to drivers in paper binders with recycling routes covering more territory than refuse routes.

“A lot has changed in recycling, especially with online shopping, with the amount of cardboard people have, with our blue bins that we have distributed,” Mitchell said. “Pretty much all of our refuse routes get done earlier than our recycling routes.”

He said the software will help create more balanced and easily updatable routes. Currently, the longest recycling route is about 10 hours long.

“That balance is really important,” said Bob Charland of the South Side. “The thing that I complain about all the time is the incentive to get done as fast as humanly possible does not always mean that everything, especially on the recycling routes, gets in the back of the truck.”

Mitchell said there was confusion about the existing $274,150 route-optimization contract with the software company SmartRoute. It does not include the in-vehicle turn-by-turn navigation systems DPW started to introduce recently, which requires a separate $113,280 contract that will run through Nov. 30, 2027.

Council agreed to move forward with the requested software.