Towards a Smarter Waste Management

The study 1) explores how to develop an IoT-based smart waste management (SWM) system that improves the waste management processes of a city and 2) researches how to develop SWM system improvement and evaluation decision support framework (DSF), that guides how to achieve all major WM-related goals, applies to different types of cities with different contexts and is not restrained to a single country or region. This study combines in one framework theoretical research, surveys with key WM stakeholders, practical research from international projects and hackathons, and practical knowledge from interviews with city authorities and companies responsible for waste management in the world's greenest cities. The SWM DSF has been tested and evaluated in three stages: 1) by researchers, 2) by a panel of experts, and 3) by representatives of the city administration of two Finnish cities.