BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN THE WASTE MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY

 

As sustainable development goals become crucial for countries and individuals, the urge to change current practices became vital. Thus, this urges individuals and companies to act responsibly towards the environment. A main environment stressor these days is the scarcity of resources, which is growing far scarcer due to sanctions existing worldwide. Therefore, the only way around it is to manage our current resources properly ensuring that they do not end up in the landfill.

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The waste management industry encapsulates the lifecycle of a resource from production to consumption whereby it can create a reverse clock for the resources. The issue in the industry lies in the presence of various stakeholders, namely the regulators, waste management service providers, recycling facilities, manufacturers, and communities, making it difficult to trace and track the resource due to multiple stakeholders. This draws a need for a medium that reports where the resource is at. Thus, the use of blockchain technology is inevitable, as it would be the platform that can host multiple stakeholders. A blockchain is built through having timestamped blocks of information, so resources would be timestamped on the blockchain allowing the traceability of the resources. Once resources are traceable, then the stakeholders involved would understand when it is time to intervene. As multiple interventions take place from various stakeholders, smart contracts on the blockchain are essential in the industry to track transactions and legal requirements. 

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Furthermore, the ability to have blockchain coupled with complementary technology such as AI and sensors creates a powerful medium for the waste management industry. As the sensors would be able to collect information regarding the waste specifications and the user authenticity. The blockchain would be the medium of which information is recorded upon and has stakeholder interaction. Furthermore, AI would be the tool that analyzes all the generated information, where it would understand the source of the waste generated and acts on reducing it or allows the resource to live longer through channeling the right medium for the reuse/recycling of the resource. 

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Blockchain with coupled technology would lift most of the problems in the waste management industry, but without a proper incentive scheme to engage stakeholders, this solution would be challenging. Therefore, the use of Recoin, a token used to incentivize stakeholders in engaging within the platform, would be given to stakeholders. This would create a positive impact on individuals to deliver honest information where all stakeholders would rely on this platform as the platform to trust. This would allow stakeholders to use this information to optimize their performance and hence uplift the waste management industry. 

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Uplifting the waste management industry would have a positive impact in reaching the sustainable development goals. Therefore, this would create a circular loop whereby resources are conserved, costs are reduced, and humans are engaged towards leading a positive drive. This is possible today due to the existence of the blockchain technology as it is the driver behind this change.  

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As blockchain has received the hype over the last couple of years, so has ‘zero waste’. Zero waste refers to ensuring that a resource is used to its maximum potential prior to it being disposed ensuring the conservation of a resource.  With fiercer regulations on the environment and an increase in demand of resources, this just draws a higher demand to conserve resources. This prompts a heavy load on the waste management industry, which is comprised of multiple stakeholders. 

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First are the regulators that govern how the waste is disposed, ensuring that a country’s environmental goals are met through the legal framework. Second are the waste management service providers that collect the waste and route it to its specified destination. Third are the recycling facilities that reuse/recycle/compost the waste. Forth are the companies in the supply chain such as manufacturers that receive the reused/recycled/remanufactured material for further use. Finally, are the communities meaning everyone. 

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Problem Statement:

The issue with the waste management industry is that there are multiple stakeholders involved making it very difficult to achieve zero waste without proper traceability of the resources and a proper network for collaboration. Therefore, the use of blockchain is inevitable in keeping track of the multiple stakeholders involved. Also, the high market demand of resources just drives the need even more to be equipped with smart technology such as internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and blockchain to understand the conditions and locations of the resources. Blockchain would be the medium between the various stakeholders where it would create a timestamp of the product’s lifecycle, and it would be a verification tool in understanding the condition of the resource. Using blockchain, resource location would also be identified which will create the network needed to enhance its lifetime aiding towards the vision of zero waste.  

 

Outline of the vision:

The solution would involve a dependence on blockchain technology and complementary technology in the waste management industry where blockchain would be the point of reference for a product lifecycle and a platform for the integration of industries. 

Take yogurt production as an example. At manufacturing phase, some products fail and end up in the trash. When the products end up in the trash, sensors record what the products are composed of such as labels, packaging type, or yogurt itself then the resulting information would be stored on the blockchain. The blockchain would keep track of this information, where it would amplify the quantities disposed from certain geolocations and act as the platform that would display this information. Multiple recycling facilities on the blockchain platform would find value in the disposed items and would reuse them, but that would require logistics to do so. Thus, a waste management service provider on the blockchain would collect this waste and send it to the recycling facilities.  

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For products that pass, individuals would consume the yogurt and end up with the packaging and labels. The labels would contain a QR code that if scanned would allow the individuals to participate in the blockchain. This would notify the stakeholders on the blockchain there is packaging material to be collected and that would create the waste management service providers to collect this waste relocating it to recycling facilities. This would create a closed loop of where all the waste has been transported to the right medium. 

The regulators would create smart contracts on the blockchain to ensure that the recycling facilities and the waste management service providers behave within the legal frameworks and govern the activity. The smart contract would ensure certain terms and conditions are met and that there is no monopoly happening to ensure standardization amongst all. Once everything passes through the smart contract and all conditions are met, a token is rewarded to the waste management service provider and the recycling facility.

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Blockchain technology would ensure that there has been zero waste created in the production as resources would be traced and tracked from production to consumption. The blockchain would create blocks of information of the resource lifecycle, which would be timestamped, and a smart contract generated ensuring an agreement between individuals have been met. Also, settlement and reconciliation processes would exist on the blockchain where tokens would be awarded once products/waste have been delivered within the legal framework dictated by the regulators.

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Furthermore, blockchain would be contributing towards sustainable development, where it would have an impact on the 3 pillars of sustainability: economy, communities, and the environment. Blockchain would ensure that the stakeholders would be incentivized to be engaged on the platform. Also, blockchain would allow communities to be engaged and feel their positive impact towards the environment. Evidently, the environment would benefit as this solution would drive less resources generated from the environment and zero waste produced.

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Blockchain Technology Solution:

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The four choices for entrepreneurial strategy:

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1. CUSTOMERS

The customers would be mainly the stakeholders involved, whereby the regulators, such as the municipalities or local authorities, would be the main customer as it would govern the activity and pay for the services made that ensure zero waste.  As well as the manufacturers and retail shops would be customers as whatever would be considered waste prior to product consumption would be part of the platform and they would pay for the removal of their waste. The recycling facilities would also be customers since they receive the waste and pay for the waste received.  

 

2. TECHNOLOGY

Blockchain would be the main platform, but given the issue with scalability, layer2 solutions would be required to conduct the transactions off the chain, where it would save more storage and reduce the pressure off the blockchain. Alongside with that framework, IoT such as sensors would be used to detect the waste type and GPS location. AI would analyze the information whereby it would be able to understand the source of the waste. This could reduce the waste and/or create hubs for the waste generated through understanding a trend enabling a faster link to collect the waste.

 

3. IDENTITY

The identity of the business is to create a zero waste platform where no resources are wasted using smart and efficient technology as a driver to the solution. It would be a platform to collaborate, bringing different stakeholders together and changing the traditional consumption perception, to solve an imminent dilemma which is resources recovery in the waste management industry. It is a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved as they are incentivized to move towards creating sustainable development, which feeds a country’s national and international goals. Thus, blockchain application would be the sustainable hub for the waste management industry.

 

4. COMPETITION

There have been pilot projects for the usage of blockchain for zero waste, where some types of wastes have been experimented on. One of which is the reuse of prescribed drugs, whereby RemediChain uses blockchain as a platform to interconnect the disposed unused prescribed drugs from one individual and redistribute it to another in need of the medicine. Another is Green Mining, which collects waste from various locations, where they weigh the waste and collect information about it, sending it to the recycling facilities. Furthermore, Plastic Bank uses blockchain for the collection and redistribution of plastic waste.

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Digital ecosystem and token distribution:

The idea of incentivizing for recycling is not an eccentric concept and since blockchain was developed primarily through incentivization; it is evident that blockchain would be the medium for the waste management industry. The incentive scheme would motivate the waste management service providers and the recycling facilities empowering them to be the leading arms in the industry. The regulators would govern these activities ensuring that if they have conducted the job within the terms specified in the smart contracts then they would receive a token “Recoin”. This would reduce the time needed to have third party checks. Also, the data found on the blockchain coupled with AI can be calculated and extrapolated by regulators to understand the impact of the stakeholders on the platform; it would create a data benchmark performance, leading to less people involved in data analysis. Recoin would also be given to any user that wants to engage in the platform for the return of the resources back to the supply chain, whereby involving as many users as possible would only bootstrap the network creating more room for users to be engaged for a good cause.   

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The last mile:

The last mile problem that may exist is that the waste is a physical object that is collected through having a physical interaction between the waste generators and the waste collectors. The problem is the ‘on the ground’ checking procedure whether this item is the same item collected and if it is contaminated. This problem would cause an issue in directing the waste to the right treatment facility. 

AI would have created data analysis of waste materials from the blockchain regarding the waste specifications and user authenticity. Therefore, when waste is signaled for collection, QR codes would be scanned, and sensors would be used to identify the waste dumped. This is coupled with the GPS coordinates of where the waste was collected to understand the authenticity of the user and having weighing scales on the vehicles to understand the waste specification. Furthermore, AI would verify if this were correct or not and if it is then it would report it back on the blockchain. As a secondary verification method, drivers would be motivated to give accurate information, because a driver would also be rewarded with Recoin after having records of accurate information. 

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Special Considerations/Concluding Remarks:

•           This is a simplified case scenario since waste management is much more complicated whereby it has various layers that are yet to be integrated into the model. However, if a pilot test of a simplified model would work, then integration of various layers would be possible. 

•           It is very essential to have stakeholders on the platform and collaborating with one another and that is why the incentive scheme is key to the project success.

•           This is very costly to implement, and a funding mechanism must be determined prior to engaging in this activity, since it would require expensive software and hardware.  

•           Nevertheless, blockchain would solve a very big portion of issues in the waste management industry such as the traceability and create the platform for the various stakeholders leading towards having ‘zero waste’.