A web-app for implementing a ‘Carbon Footprint Calculator’ for smart waste management systems

Nowadays, being “smart” is fundamental to achieve sustainable objectives and targets set by the European Union. Providing smartness to waste management systems deserves considerable attention. Indeed, it is a sector that has experienced remarkable organizational and technological progresses. Much more can be done to involve smart actors who cooperate in decision-making on public or social services. Stakeholders include also citizens whose behaviours strongly affect system performance. Consistently, in the frame of the European project “RES NOVAE”, the authors developed a web-app named “Smart Waste - Carbon Footprint Calculator (SW-CFC)”. SW-CFC is conceived to evaluate and monitor direct and avoided emissions of municipal solid waste management systems. The web-app has two different users profile: public decision makers and citizens. The public decision-makers can use the app to assess the carbon footprint of the ‘status quo’ systems and to evaluate the impact of potential changes in different technical and organizational choices. On the other hand, the use of SW-CFC can stimulate citizens’ consciousness leading their actions on right collection practice. By a short survey section, the app calculates and shows citizen' green attitudes and habits in terms of avoided emissions. Due to the formative and informative purpose of the app, the increase of social involvement is an expected result too.