Benefits

  • Automatically triggered service actions based on sorting chute sensor data
  • Tenant bag and RFID tag requests logged and fulfilled through new app
  • Detailed tenant visibility to track waste disposal and app usage

The Challenge

Dubai has emerged as the epicenter of modern innovation in the Middle East region, leading a shift in mindset in the Middle East for new technology adoption. Veolia Middle East, a resource management company headquartered in Dubai, has rapidly grown its business in the Middle East region especially in waste management and recycling including a UAE-wide initiative to collect recyclable waste from tenants. 

Veolia Middle East wanted to implement a cloud-based application for smart waste management in a commercial building. Hundreds of tenants in a multi-story facility would drop-off waste bags into a garbage chute system in the building. Recyclable waste bags carrying a RFID tag would need to then be sorted from general waste bags at the basement of the building by an RFID reader within the sorting chute system. Veolia needed the electronic hardware and control system for the sorting chute system initiate maintenance automatically by connecting them to multiple stakeholders in the service chain. Tenants using a mobile app also needed to be incentivized for disposing more recyclable waste with gamification.

The Solution

Sensfix customized its flagship Sens-Facility suite into the Sens Waste Management Platform in the cloud and successfully demonstrated the capabilities Veolia Middle East was looking for. The proof of concept was carried out in a building with one installation of the garbage chute system.

The Sensfix platform seamlessly integrated its stakeholder-specific mobile and web apps with the sorting chute system, embedded electronics systems supporting the chute system, RFID/ QR-code based hybrid electronics readers, and other sensors in the garbage chute system that send data over MQTT protocol to the cloud. Sensfix algorithms use the data to trigger service actions and schedule authorized service personnel automatically.

Tenant could log complaints in their own app and a separate dashboard as well as UI designed for Arabic language was deployed. Tenants’ requests for bags and RFID tags in the building were aggregated and routed directly to the facility manager. Tenant activity was monitored by tracking tenants’ mobile app usage and monthly statistics for the weight of recyclable waste disposed, total number of bags used, app usage, and the frequency of waste disposal.

Illustration: A top-level click-through demonstration of sens-waste platform