Monitoring of degree of filling improves waste management in Espoo schools
The City of Espoo, together with Wastebook, carried out a four-month experiment in three schools in Espoo that monitored the accumulation of plastic and mixed waste.
The aim of the pilot project “Closed Plastic Circle – from Pilots into Practice” was to collect data on the efficiency of school waste management, as well as ideas for its development and the sharing of good practices. The experiment was carried out in the period 17 October 2023–15 February 2024.
“With this study, we wanted to gain certainty for sorting reporting, as well as get more information on how much waste is generated, how efficiently sorting containers are used and how accurate the assumptions of our existing data are,” says Mia Johansson, Project Manager of Closed Plastic Circle – from Pilots into Practice.
In the pilot, sensors to measure the surface level were attached to waste containers, and the sensors sent up-to-date information on the degree of filling of the containers to a cloud service. In addition, information was collected on possible overfilling situations by measuring the position of the lid.
In the light of the results received, school waste management appears largely quite efficient – the filling rates of the containers are high at the time of emptying. Overfilling occurred occasionally, but the number of containers was found to be suitable in the experiment. The school average of the filling rates of mixed waste containers varied between 75–84%. The school average of the filling rates of plastic waste containers was 36–94%. Development will be continued based on the research results by, for example, investigating how the success of best sorters could be shared with other schools.
“I personally consider sorting to be very important, and I have been trying to promote it at our school for a long time. This experiment and the results obtained from it serve as a good tool for reviewing and maintaining sorting at school. It was nice to be able to participate in the experiment,” says Mimmu Hellsten, Head Teacher of the Karhusuon koulu primary school.
“The happy story of growth and learning consists of daily work with children and young people at our schools. This includes actions such as reducing food waste, teaching recycling and nature education. I would like to thank all the schools that participated in the experiment: the primary schools Aarnivalkean koulu, Karhusuon koulu and Ruusutorpan koulu”, says Director of Basic Education Juha Nurmi.
“This pilot is a good example of how the measurement of waste data using digital solutions can be utilised to make recycling more efficient. For Wastebook, the joint pilot with the City of Espoo has been very interesting, and it has attracted interest among the stakeholders included in the project, ”says Mikko Ahokas, CEO of Wastebook.
Inquiries:
Mikko Ahokas mikko.ahokas@macon.fi
Mia Johansson mia.johansson@espoo.fi