User-Centric Services Repository

WASTE COLLECTION SYSTEM BASED ON DOOR TO DOOR - Manlleu

City / Region

Manlleu (Spain)

In a nutshell

The waste collection system in Manlleu is door-to-door with a payment system based on PAYT. It's an innovative project because it incorporates new technologies that allow digital interaction between citizens and the public administration. This technology based on hardware and software offers the citizen the ability to track their waste contributions and possible incidents in order to improve the selective collection of waste, as well as interact with the town hall bidirectionally, so that the citizen does not receive only information but can relate to the service in an agile and effective way. This interaction can be done through a citizen application called ENOUGH REASONS that is free and available for Android and iOS mobile devices and is the main subject of this presentation.This citizen application is available to all users of the door-to-door waste collection system in the municipality of Manlleu. It is currently being used by 1,676 users including home and business users. The City Council runs campaigns via social networks and the media to encourage the population to download the app and enjoy the advantages it offers. It is a very easy-to-use and comfortable tool for all types of users, and establishes a more direct and comfortable relationship with citizens and companies. On the website of the town hall  there's a section that explains in detail how the app works, the links to download it, how to activate the user account and all the benefits it offers. With this app, the city council offers a digital service that facilitates information and communication with citizens and businesses, as well as streamlining the procedures for receiving complaints and suggestions related to waste. Additionally, the use of this app saves time and travel by reducing the carbon footprint associated with these. Connecting at any time of the day to check the status of contributions and follow up on communications makes the everyday life of citizens and businesses easier.

What makes the service user-centric?
The ENOUGH REASONS app is focused on serving the citizen both for control their contribution to the system waste collection and for control how much money they have to pay in the future depending on their behaviour. Manlleu implemented a Pay as you throw system (PAYT) (also called variable rate pricing or user-pay) that is a usage-pricing model for disposing of municipal solid waste. Users are charged a rate based on how much waste they present for collection to the municipality. Waste is measured by unit counts, identified using different types of tags and containers with RFID.
This technological proposal represents an opportunity for the citizens of Manlleu to find out in an easy and comfortable way everything that has to do with waste management, as well as information about all the services. In a single click, you can access updated information about your waste, make the fastest arrangements to request coordinated collections and report on incidents, and at the same time, learn how each piece of waste should be managed, both for domestic and commercial users. At the same time, a two-way relationship is established with the service and the town hall that facilitates communication and the resolution of possible incidents.
The principles of the Tallinn Local Declaration that the app complies with are:
1. Digital interaction: It is a two-way app, this allows to ensure the digital interaction of companies and citizens with the city council in terms of waste management, without any financial cost for the user and in a simple and easy We are also working to ensure that the user experience plays a central role in improving this digital service by collecting their contributions.

2. Accessibility, security, availability and usefulness: it is a very easy to understand app as it includes icons and images and is adapted so that all users can understand it. The forms are also easy to fill out and intuitive and to register at the waste collection can be done by reading a QR code with a single click. It is available for free on the Apple Store and the Play Store. Meets all security requirements offered by service providers. Each user has a code to be able to register and access their private part with a personal password.
3. Reduces the burden on the administration and citizens: thanks to this digital process, the number of requests to the town hall is reduced, as well as the issuance of notices to the citizen. Complaints, incidents and suggestions from both the citizen and the council can be conveyed through the app and these are managed with the ID-SOFT management program, with an immediate resolution or with the least possible time. The citizen app is linked bidirectionally with the management software so that all information is centralized in the software. Since the service is completely personalized, communications between the citizen and the town hall are direct and proactive.
4. Digital public service: this app is a digital public service that allows you to make contributions of any evidence or incident, you can report a right on the part of the citizen as well as communicate obligations to fulfill in the matter of waste according to the regulations. With this app the citizen can check at any time the personal status of the waste collection service provided by the city council.
5. Citizen participation: before starting this door-to-door waste collection model, a citizens' table was set up made up of the associative and business fabric of the city to start a participatory process to promote and monitor the new model. This table is still active and the main objective of this working group is to discuss aspects related to monitoring the implementation of the new waste collection model and thus improve the proposed work lines. From the beginning, the city council reported on all the aspects of door-to-door innovation, including the citizen app, and all the suggestions made for its smooth operation were collected.
The city council has presented the app and disseminated it via social networks and other municipal publications, and all those suggestions and contributions from citizens have been collected in order to improve the service and adapt it to needs.
Citizens and companies can use this app to express opinions, incidents both in text format and in image format via photographs.
6. Incentives for the use of the digital service: as previously mentioned, this app is very simple and easy for citizens to use. Its use brings many benefits in terms of inquiries into individual behavior in waste management. The user can be informed at all times effectively and in an up-to-date and fast manner. As previously mentioned, the app also allows you to read the waste bin's QR code to record the waste contributions made by the user. In the event that a minimum of 4 annual contributions are registered through the app, the waste rate can be reduced by 10 euros.
The city council has incorporated a face-to-face service called "Door-to-Door Office" which aims to serve all those people who do not have the knowledge in digital matters, providing them with training and advice for the use of this app and improve access to the internet, thus reducing the digital divide.
7. Protection and privacy of personal data: the processing of personal data complies with the general data protection regulations and privacy requirements at EU and national level applicable. As already mentioned above, in order to receive the user code to register in the app, users had to fill in a form with their personal and contact details, always accompanied by the data protection information notice and with the option to give consent on the treatment that will receive your data. At all times the advice of an expert in data protection has been relied on to comply with all related regulations and not to violate fundamental rights.
A risk impact assessment has previously been carried out to comply with the obligations established in the GDPR.
8. Repair and reporting mechanisms: the app has an option to report complaints and incidents related to the waste collection service. There is direct communication with the technical services, users can send messages to the service to resolve doubts, complaints and will receive a response from the follow-up technicians. At the same time, they also have other digital channels such as e-mail and the electronic headquarters of the town hall.


What impact has the service had?
For the administration: The application of this technology greatly facilitates the tasks of the city council in terms of, on the one hand, the control of the quality of the service and, on the other, the monitoring of the behavior of citizens to apply a fair rate of waste and resolve incidents that may arise during the waste collection service.
The city council has a comprehensive management program for the control, planning and monitoring of the waste collection service called ID-SOFT. This program allows quick and easy access to the data recorded by the technology on board the vehicles and mobile handheld readers. It also has a georeferenced information system where all the elements registered in the program (buckets, vehicles, incidents...) are located on the map layer, facilitating better service planning and better execution and greater quality
This program also allows the sending of messages to citizens and companies about their requests and registered incidents. Photographic follow-up of the communication and incidents can be done, both users and operators and council can attach photos to the different states through which it has passed during the management of the follow-up.
One of the main advantages of the program for the city council is the planning of all services in a calendar and being able to check their compliance in real time. It has interesting tools such as a route planner, an operation control monitor that allows you to view the schedule of the routes and their compliance status in real time and a statistics viewer. The operators can also centralize the communications and incidents encountered during the service through their ID-SOFT apps, in this way the town hall will be able to visualize it cartographically and geo-referenced. All this makes control of the service more visual and intuitive.
Regarding the monitoring of citizens' behavior with regard to waste, ID-SOFT collects all the contributions of waste made by a home/user, this makes it possible to know which homes are properly separating their waste and which are not, essential data for to be able to apply a fair waste rate based on payment per generation. It is also possible to find out about the requests, registrations at the waste collection and the incidents of citizens and companies in a quick and simple way.
The ID-SOFT manager currently has a database of 9,698 users, all of whom are eligible to download the citizen app. Currently this download has been made by 18% of users, which is equivalent to 1,676 households who use this app.
In total, the reading system has accounted for 406,781 collections of waste from the rest and organic fractions.
Other data that we can extract from the software are since 2022:
- Requests made by users through the SOBREN MOTIUS app: a) trash access = 1377 people; b) arranged furniture collection requests = 417; c) material change requests (buckets) = 13.
We received as well 88 incidents reported by users; 8.858 incidents reported by the service and 237 incidents with actions.

For citizens and businesses: the SOBREN MOTIUS citizen app is a very useful and easy-to-use tool for citizens. It is easy to download to your personal mobile device as it is available for free for Android and iOS operating systems. It does not involve any additional cost for the citizen and makes it easy to have all the information associated with daily and personal waste management in a single app. It is designed with the most vulnerable population in mind in terms of digital skills, especially for the elderly, as simplified formats such as icons and images are included to make it more visual and easy to understand.

The town hall also offers face-to-face training for all those people who do not have the digital knowledge to download the app, thus making it even easier to use this very useful tool for the citizenship

We can consider it an essential tool for the implementation of payment by generation, since depending on the contributions of waste (organic fraction and remainder) made by each user, the calculation will be made to obtain a fair waste rate. This calculation is based on the readings of the TAG RFID buckets that the operators will make with the manual UHF readers, and will be registered in the ID-SOFT data manager. Users who do not participate or who do not make the correct contributions of waste will have an economic surcharge on the waste rate, for this reason it is very important that the user knows at all times the contributions he has made to control whether he is doing so correctly and not have this surcharge.

In addition, the citizen has a direct channel to communicate with the service, this greatly simplifies his life and makes it easier to implement a new waste collection model such as door-to-door.
How was the service co-created?
As previously stated, before starting this door-to-door waste collection model, a citizens' table was set up made up of the associative and business fabric of the city to start a participatory process to promote and monitor the new model . The citizens' table is made up of 34 entities, including 6 neighborhood associations, 2 trade associations, 9 schools, the Manlleu businessmen's association, the farmers' community and the rest cultural, solidarity and religious entities . 4 participation sessions were held and all the contributions made by all the people attending were collected. From the beginning, the city council reported on all aspects of door-to-door innovation such as the citizen app and collected all those suggestions made for its good operation. Some of the requests from the participants was that the use of the app could be done in an easy and understandable way with images and avoiding technicalities.
This table is still active and the main objective of this working group is to discuss aspects related to monitoring the implementation of the new waste collection model and thus improve the proposed work lines.
Apart from this public table, other meetings and participatory sessions have been held organized by sector and more detailed to collect all those more specific contributions. In total, a total of 17 sectoral meetings and 13 sessions with the citizens of Manlleu have taken place. A total of 2.852 people have participated.
Additional Documents

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