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As cities have grown and expanded, the first unintended consequence raised is generally infrastructure strain – roads (and potholes). What often comes after is the waste management challenges that follow the benefits of that growth. In 2018 alone, the EPA reported that the U.S. generated 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste or nearly five pounds per person per day.

This sector has continued to face the same challenges – feeling somewhere between Groundhog Day and a brick wall. One complex challenge we hear frequently is creating resident education (and behavior change) that would decrease waste resulting from the contamination of recyclable materials and composting. For many leaders in the smart city space, waste management is being elevated as a key initiative to managing growth, resource conservation, and future-proofing at a regional level. While many public services are managed within jurisdictions, waste continues to be a key opportunity for regional collaboration to develop a model that diverts, reduces and reuses waste by leveraging data and technology as a catalyst to support the experts.

Waste Overflow Leads To Infrastructure Challenges

Waste overflow is at the heart of the problem. From recyclable materials to hazardous material waste and a lack of efficient composting, all of this has accumulated to a shocking amount of electronic, medical waste, plastic, and glass in landfills across the U.S. Texas receives an annual landfill disposal of 38.32 million tons of waste. This is equivalent to 7.09 pounds per Texan per day according to statistics from the (NCTCOG). How does this all come to infrastructure challenges? The challenge is compounded by limited landfill capacity. To put into perspective, the North Texas region only has 22 active landfills that are estimated to have a remaining capacity of 35 years. In the North Central Texas region alone, 11.1 million tons of waste were disposed of in landfills in 2021, making it the highest out of 24 different regions.

As cities grow and new communities are founded, waste management is placed on the back burner of city issues. Landfills, however, will continue to have less and less capacity to keep up with the waste of cities not just in Texas but across the U.S. This will culminate in waste displacement driving the industry’s infrastructure depletion and raising flags of concern in the smart city space. While this can all seem daunting, many cities are taking steps to address what it could mean to make waste management smarter and more efficient to manage their sustainable endeavors and develop cleaner communities.

Smart Waste Management In Action

ÌýThe North Texas region has taken actionable steps to continue addressing waste concerns and create more adoptable solutions for change. One of the most crucial stepping stones is cross-industry partnerships. Private-public sector collaboration across the smart city space has been a driver for innovation and putting various solutions into motion for efficiency. Metropolital Planning Organizations like NCTCOGÌý are exploring camera data analytics to reduce illegal dumping activities while cities like Irving, TX have partnered with private collaborator, to enhance waste and recycling services on the ground. Dallas County led a Call for Innovation to bring drone and robotic companies to demo solutions to various challenges, including a focus on combatting ‘dump zones’, earlier detection of hazardous waste, and fleet management, with the goal of sharing learnings with peer agency departments, including sanitation. DFW Airport is placing their cards in the composting sector and working with TURN Composting for food waste reduction and have successfully diverted over 2 million pounds of food waste from the airport’s various retailers. These efforts show that cross-industry collaboration can make smart waste management both practical and scalable.

However, technology and partnerships are only part of the solution. Educating communities about proper recycling, composting, and waste reduction is critical. Many residents are unaware of the various challenges the region faces and what this means not just for their household but their communities. One of the most critical points in education is the waste management hierarchy. NCTCOG’s Time to Recycle program is one example of helping residents understand what and how to recycle, reducing contamination and easing the strain on local landfills.

All these initiatives can be tied to setting ZeroNet Goals. This initiative refers to the internationally founded goal of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions to lessen the impact and overall path of global warming by 2050. These initial goals could also be considered a ‘step zero’ for smart waste management and help address specific regions’ concerns when it comes to waste disposal.

We can’t chart the path of smart waste management without bringing AI into the picture. Data-driven management has also become a powerful solution when it comes to waste sorting. Automated sorting systems are increasing the efficiency of recycling processes while also reducing the risk of contamination through AI-powered robots and machines. Tied to data-driven results and initiatives, companies like Moonshot Compost help organizations track how much waste they divert and report on carbon emission reductions, giving clients measurable results to support sustainability goals.

With the level of growth (more than 300 residents move to North Texas daily) comes construction – lots of it, as well as roadway strain. A combination of AI is being utilized to identify and model deteriorating roads, incorporating both predictive maintenance and in the case of Fort Worth, utilizing recycled and porous materials, including crushed aggregate from reclaimed concrete, support construction waste and increasing flood risks.Ìý

The Waste Management Movement Lies In Connectivity and Adaptation

At its core, smart waste management is about changing behavior — how people think about waste, what they value and how they act. Social media, community outreach and education are critical to fostering that shift. As we continue to address our need to evolve waste management and overflowing landfills, we’ll need to have an open mind about adopting new technologies, goals, missions, and sectors. And in time, communities and cities can begin to embrace and see the results of smart waste management for cleaner, more sustainable communities.

Jennifer Sanders is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of (NTXIA), a consortium of more than 50 cross-sector organizations in North Texas working to create the most connected, smart and resilient region in the country. As one of the women leading the smart city movement globally, she is well-versed in the various challenges faced nationally and internationally, working closely with private and public partners to bring about innovative – and attainable – solutions. Jennifer can be reached at [email protected].