IT-innovations that help to improve waste management in Estonian university of life sciences

Abstract

Sorting waste is no longer novelty in today's society, but the way it is brought to more people needs to be modernized to make it attractive and efficient. This study describes waste management information sharing through blending visual coding and the QR-coding. The study was conducted at the Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU) campus in Tartu, under the guidance of the Green University. EMU campus is a good test-site for information-sharing exercise because its campus a very compact, including not only study buildings but also dormitories, and its size is mimicking a small municipality. The waste sorting assortment was expanded, the labels of waste containers and the sorting instructions were harmonized. The aim was to make the entire waste management chain transparent, to simplify waste sorting and to share feedback information. Electronic format attempted to achieve that any additional costs for printing new sorting instructions, publications, stickers, etc, were minimized. No less important is to disseminate basics of the circular economy and to motivate students and employees behave in an environmentally conscious way also outside the campus.