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Only by truly embracing the array of technology solutions available can we drastically reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill and, in turn, cut methane emissions from
discarded materials.
By Pritesh Pattni

What we do with our waste might not be the most glamorous item on the climate agenda, but it is an essential topic of discussion. Municipal solid waste sent to landfills is responsible for 14 percent of human-related methane emissions in the U.S., demonstrating that a net zero transition cannot be fully realized without tackling the issue.

There is clear cause for optimism, with market projections indicating that the waste management sector is finally achieving recognition on an international scale. The industry is currently worth almost USD$1.5 trillion and is forecasted to grow to USD$2 trillion by the end of the decade.

If we look at the U.S., there are promising signs that the waste management space is primed for expansion. An annual growth rate of 5 percent is expected over the next five years, driven by a sustained increase in the volume of waste the country produces plus investment triggered by environmental concerns regarding methods of waste disposal.

Barriers to Progress
However, despite a favorable growth outlook, a number of persistent issues continue to limit the sector’s rate of development. Waste management providers operating on a national scale have to contend with conflicting regulatory requirements across states, while there is still significant work to do on educating consumers as to what waste items can and cannot be recycled.
Perhaps the barrier to progress within the sector that requires the most urgent attention is attitudes to technology. The waste management industry is plagued by outdated legacy systems that cause inefficiency across operations, often because business activities are siloed, with organizations relying on many different systems for monitoring and reporting.

For waste management to realize its full potential and help build a more sustainable world, operators need to commit to significant investment and innovation—specifically, in technologies that increase visibility into their systems and processes and enable them to make better, more accurate data-driven decisions.

Real-Time Insights with IoT
In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has established itself as a key pillar of waste and recycling’s technological transition. Multiple IoT use cases help waste management operators. Large-scale rollouts of IoT-enabled trucks feature sensors that report data in real-time, which can be analyzed and used to optimize collection routes. This minimizes costs by limiting the amount of fuel consumed by the trucks, reducing their environmental impact by lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Waste management operators can also use this monitoring technology to more accurately predict their vehicles’ maintenance needs, allowing them to keep fleets in good working condition and reducing the risk of breakdowns that disrupt collection schedules.

IoT-enabled bins also improve the efficiency of waste collections. There is a balancing act at play when it comes to collection scheduling, as infrequent visits can lead to overflows, while an overly attentive approach is a waste of resources and increases fuel costs.

Fitting bins with sensors that monitor how close they are to capacity is a simple way of solving this issue. By doing so, waste management providers have visibility over which sites need to be serviced at certain points in time, allowing them to send staff and vehicles in a way that best serves their needs.

Unlocking the Power of Data
IoT technology is just one of several ways in which waste management providers can collect and analyze data to make well-informed decisions that improve their operational performance. For an organization to truly take advantage of available information, it should have full visibility across business operations. However, a significant barrier to the effective use of data is disparate legacy systems in which information is siloed and cannot be analyzed alongside other data sets that are available.

Software that integrates seamlessly into existing ERP systems eliminates this problem by joining up legacy technology and standardizing processes across operations. With different strands of activity all connected to and feeding into the same central system, waste management providers can then collect and analyze data from across all their operations.

The next challenge is to understand how to manage all this information. The answer is the implementation of a robust data and analytics strategy that provides the insights for waste management operators to make informed decisions based on the data they collect.

Once analyzed, there are a host of advantages for waste collection data. These include tracking waste materials around the supply chain to refine the flow and improve circularity, route and collection planning that adds clarity for customers, suppliers and staff, and real-time changes to transport and logistics to optimize efficiency.

AI and Automation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to change working practices across a range of industries; according to recent research by PwC, AI-exposed sectors are achieving almost five times the level of growth in labor productivity. Waste management is no exception. Waste operators should now consider how they can use AI to make the most of their data in a way that improves operational performance.

AI use cases include examining and analyzing data sets that are too large to inspect manually, and also identifying trends and patterns from information collected by IoT-enabled devices, such as trucks and bin sensors.

Integrating AI into your operations might sound like a daunting task. But flashier iterations of this technology—for instance GenAI solutions and Large Language Models (LLMs)—are not the only options available. There are a host of tried-and-tested, easy-to-deploy AI tools that can deliver quick returns.

Building a Less Wasteful, More Sustainable Future
Waste management operators have a critical role to play in how we reduce the volume of waste we produce at a local, national, and global level, and make the transition to a less resource-intensive, more sustainable circular economy.

The challenge now facing operators is to consider firstly, which new technology innovations such as AI, IoT and analytics to invest in, and second, how to incorporate these new technologies into their operations in ways that will maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and create new opportunities to recycle and reuse waste materials.

Only by truly embracing the array of solutions available can we drastically reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill and, in turn, cut methane emissions from discarded materials. | WA

Pritesh Pattni is Chief Commercial Officer at waste and recycling software provider ISB Global, where he leads the Sales, Marketing and Account Management teams out of the London office. Pritesh is passionate about how technology can help solve the day-to-day challenges in the waste and recycling industry and holds more than 25 years of experience in helping companies use IT to drive efficiency and growth. For more information, e-mail [email protected].

References
www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas
www.statista.com/statistics/246178/projected-global-waste-management-market-size
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-waste-management-market-report
www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/artificial-intelligence/ai-jobs-barometer.html