Household Waste and Recycling Support Mobile App

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Albion Environmental Ltd is an environmental consultancy firm providing management support and training in the waste sector, regularly working with local authorities and private waste management companies. We have identified recurring issues with council's waste collection services and as a result we have designed a project that would improve communication between councils and householders.Some of the key issues that have arisen from poor communication between councils and householders include; confusion caused by complicated collection schedules due to increasing number of bins and high contamination rates due to inadequate recycling guidance and varying recycling schemes across councils. Other issues identified include missed bin collections, delays/cancelations due adverse weather and public holidays, and staffing and mechanical issues delaying collections.There is a need for improvement as current communication methods have significant draw backs. Councils posting on websites does not directly reach householders and mailing paper copies is very expensive, cannot provide updated information and is not environmentally friendly.We have identified a project that would assist with all of the above issues while bringing additional short- and long-term benefits. This project will develop an app which will have immediate benefits to both the councils and householders.Householders will benefit from having;* Easily accessible calendar for each bins collection day, including phone notifications.* A searchable list of waste types detailing correct colour of bin waste items should be placed in.Council's will benefit from having;* Improved customer engagement by providing direct link to residents.* Increase recycling rates and reduced contamination, bringing environmental and economic benefits.* Push out notifications for changes in service due to staff shortages, breakdowns or adverse weather.This system could be implemented in every UK council and the app would be updated to reflect their recycling practises. This would help to reduce contamination rates by providing comprehensive guidance, reduce confusion around bin collection schedules and provide councils with a direct link to its residents. This could be used to send push notifications detailing any changes to current collection systems caused by; route changes, adverse weather, staffing issues, public holidays etc.Having the app in place would be hugely beneficial for dealing with events such as Covid 19, where significant changes in collections have been required at short notice. Our app would provide councils with direct access, to the public, allowing them to relay changes in a more direct and efficient manner compared to current methods.An app has now been developed which addresses all the above issues and will be rolled out to residents of South Ayrshire Council early Nov. 2020. The aim of this extended work is to firstly speed up the roll out of this app to all waste collection authorities in the UK and secondly to improve the waste search facility to improve recycling rates. This will require us to engage with supermarkets and waste producers and also to the recycling sector, where there are some exciting opportunities.We will carry out additional research using tools such as google lens, photographic identification techniques, AI, gaming technology to establish a “wiki” type system to identify products and their recycling / disposal route.