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Sweepsmart BV: Smart Waste Management IT System

Sweepsmart BV’s IT system enables municipalities and waste management companies in upcoming economies like India and Indonesia to manage waste operations, design better systems and create transparency in the value chain.

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Sweepsmart BV

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Social causes

Beneficiaries

SDGs covered

Market of Implementation

  • Ghana
  • India
  • Indonesia

Problem

Most waste in emerging economies, such as India and Indonesia, is being burned or dumped in nature or landfills, which leads to GHG emissions, pollution and leakage into the environment. The dumped waste attracts pests and diseases, causes air, soil and water pollution provide major health risks to local communities.


Waste in the environment and oceans is endangering global ecosystems. Although cities in these countries are building new waste management infrastructure, they are struggling to build cost-efficient waste handling systems. There is little insight into waste generation, collection, sorting and recycling. The entities who are handling waste usually implement limited data tracking (on paper, with little digitalisation) and only used for archiving purposes, not to manage or design waste management systems.

Efficient and economically sustainable waste management systems are key to solving the waste problem. To design and manage these systems properly, data on waste flows, activities and financials are crucial.

Solution

At Sweepsmart BV, we have developed a Smart Waste Management app that records waste and financial flows during waste collection and pre-processing in Smart Waste Centers. The data is translated to a performance dashboard which monitors KPIs. This brings about 3 broad benefits.


Firstly, this enables much needed transparency that results in:

  • Managers of waste collection and sorting services to manage and continuously improve their operations in an efficient and transparent way
  • Governments or investors in the infrastructure to assess impact real-time and design data-driven waste management interventions and future infrastructure
  • The plastic industry and brand owners to implement plastic offsetting mechanisms. This stimulates investments into plastic recycling, making the collection and recycling of low-value plastic economically feasible, which have the highest risk of leaking into the environment.
Secondly, our app also enables waste management companies/entrepreneurs to run and grow their business more profitably, creating potential for growth in an economically sustainable manner. This also provides decent low-skilled jobs for informal sector waste pickers or unemployed people.

Lastly, we also help the environment by:

  • Reducing GHG emissions by preventing waste burning or dumping
  • Replacing the use of virgin materials for new products by recycled material
  • Reducing air, water and soil pollution from burning and dumping waste

For more information on our work, do refer to our Slide Deck.

Type of Carbon Reduced/Sequestered

CO2 (Carbon Dioxide)

Amount of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent Avoided/Sequestered

The exact amount of CO2e has not yet been determined since we have not been able to do a full life cycle analysis yet. Also, the IT system itself does not avoid any CO2 emission, but it enables waste collection and pre-processing for recycling.

Means of Measurement

The dashboard will monitor exactly how much waste and of which type is collected and then brought to responsible recyclers or processors. Based on academically defined indicators about the GHG emissions per kg of virgin material replaced and the GHG emissions per kg if the material would have been burnt or dumped in a landfill, we can track how much GHG emission has been avoided.

Project’s Environment & Climate Capability

Coordination on Climate Change Measures and Activities Across Relevant Actors

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