Many initiatives have been put in place in Luxembourg with the aim of reducing pollution and encouraging recycling, especially since the modification of Luxembourg’s legislation¹ to prevent and encourage recycling. Since then, residences are required by law to have sorting centres.
This is where e-trash comes in, and in 2016 it became the first connected bin in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Generally installed in apartment buildings, this bin aims to encourage recycling and to raise awareness of waste consumption.
What is e-trash and how does it work?
It is a bin with an adaptable box, designed to cover the different models of existing waste containers. Fully locked, access to the waste deposit can only be made through a tilting drawer that opens after electronic recognition of a personal badge provided to the users beforehand, allowing them to be identified at each deposit.
The use of a connected bin then allows residence managers to easily measure the volume of waste per user, enabling an individual count to be made. Following the “polluter pays” principle, the tax is then adjusted to the volume of waste of each user, encouraging them to reduce their consumption and recycle as much as possible.
A major industrial project at the crossroads of IT, mechanics and electricity
In terms of IT, Nowina Solutions played a crucial role in setting up all the necessary connectivity for the success of e-trash. From configuring badges to setting up a web portal for monitoring and collecting information, Nowina was able to adapt to the needs of the project by making the most of its IT expertise, and to bring together users and residence managers around the same project.
The first challenge was to enable optimal access management. As the objective was to open the bin only on presentation of a personal badge, it was necessary to:
- Develop a centralized access list containing the configuration of personal badges for users;
- Configure a Datafox box to enable the link between the connected bin and the access list.
Secondly, a web portal had to be set up for the co-ownership administrators so that they could access the information they needed to carry out the counts. Depending on the efficiency of the configuration of the box, the portal takes care of recording the badge information as well as the volume of waste for each use. The badges are then collected in real or near-real time and centralised for billing purposes.
For this innovative project, there was no out of the box software to address these needs. By calling in Nowina, e-trash was able to quickly implement its vision of the system, without relying on other suppliers, and maintain its lead.
To contact us: info@nowina