Patent ID: 7406402

Claim:
A material management system including: one or more waste containers adapted to receive and compact waste; a fullness-measuring subsystem for determining the fullness of one or more waste containers; a computerized scheduling subsystem in communication with the fullness-measuring subsystem for automatically determining an optimal time to empty each waste container, the computerized scheduling subsystem comprising: at least one processor; and a memory, the memory comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to determine an optimal time to empty each waste container based on: the fullness of the waste container; and scheduling factors including: customer preferences; and waste hauler limitations; where the waste hauler limitations include one or more limitations selected from the group consisting of: a number of drivers available at a specified time; a number of trucks available at a specified time; a distance from the waste hauler to the customer's waste container; a distance from the customer's waste container to the material receiving site; operating hours of the waste hauler's dispatcher/routing office; and operating hours of a company that schedules hauls with the waste hauler, and where the computerized scheduling subsystem stores at least one scheduling factor before determining the optimal time to empty each waste container.