Maramureș County, as a partner in Reduces project, in local partnership with Intercommunity Development Association for the Integrated Management of Household Waste in Maramureș County (ADIGIDM MM) is making major steps these days for developing a software application to improve waste identification, sorting and recycling as well as to inform, empower and connect citizens to public services. It is one of the actions set out in the Circular Economy Action Plan elaborated by Maramureș County Council within Reduces project, inspired by a best practice promoted by Greater Manchester, partner in this project, and it will have a huge impact on how waste will be managed from the household bins to the waste deposits.
The application will allow the users to have access to various information like:
- scheduling/displaying the waste collection schedule;
- notifications that refer to certain announcements, releases, news and will be sent to users with the possibility of setting according to the area;
- displaying waste collection points using Google Maps and its functionalities, the collection points will be highlighted with PINs of different colours depending on the category they belong to;
- news/blog section within the application where the news and announcements will be published;
- post collection guides, collection tutorials.
Probably the most interesting and innovative feature of the app for the citizens of Maramureș County is the possibility to send notifications regarding the waste problems encountered, by completing and submitting a form that will include the following fields: notification category, problem description, photos, location. After sending notifications, they will be managed by ADIGIDM, who will filtered and sent it directly to the authorized institutions.
The system will allow the administrator of the app to edit the reporting category, problem description, remove or add new photos and change the location, as well as delete the entire reporting or add a new reporting; notifications will have several statuses (open notification, notification reached the authorized institution, notification with response, notification in progress, notification resolved, notification not resolved). The app system will allow the generation of reports that list the notifications received, as well as the solving manner and term of their resolution.
As further development, with the chipping of the collection of waste containers, the application will allow the subsequent integration of additional functionalities. For example, the subsequent integration of the application with the computer system that will manage new data from chipped recipients.
Romeo Dobocan, the manager of Intercommunity Development Association for the Integrated Management of Household Waste in Maramureș County (ADIGIDM MM) is being optimistic regarding the implementation and use of this app by the citizens, especially those interested in following the waste management in their neighbourhoods: „I am convince that with this app also, we will make our citizens more involved but especially caring with their waste management and deposits.”
The application will be available in Google Play and Apple Store and a minimum of 25,000 end users from Maramureș County are estimated to be interested in downloading it.
Finally, we feel like this app will be as a „digitalized waste management at our citizen’s fingertips”.
Gheorghe Paul Szaniszlo
Senior Counselor, Office of International Relations
Communication Expert in the REDUCES project
