One of our main worries as a society is the amount of waste that is being produced. Without a correct management, that waste usually ends up in the least indicated place, causing an increase in the level of pollution. Pollution is not only one of the main causes of modern health problems but also the main cause for the extinction of natural environments.

This concern is reflected in two of the goals for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015:

11. Sustainable cities and communities.

12. Responsible consumption and production.

But, what is a goal without a plan to achieve it? Exactly, nothing, it's worthless. That's why we want to change that. We have a plan, we have more than just a plan. We havewEarth.

wEarth ♻︎

We are a group of young girls who are very concerned about the future of our planet. That's why we chose this challenge. We felt we could contribute in some way to make the Earth a better place while raising awareness among the younger (or not so young) generations.

We are living away from home. In the last four years, we have lived in four different houses. And every time, one of our first concerns was to know where our nearest bins were: that's how wEarth was born.

WHAT IS wEarth?

wEarth is a two-way plan: you need to act and to know how to act.

ACTION PLAN

How can waste management become smart? With two simple things: an app and a sensor.

STAGE 1

This first stage is an instant implementation plan.The cost of it is very reduced so that it is not a difficulty for the city council.

With the wEarth app, you can obtain information about where your nearest bins are and if they are full or not.

The Garbage Service of the city will tell us where each bin is placed and we will add that information in a map. Nearest bin is one of the tabs of our app where you can know the exact distance that it takes to get to your nearest bin and what type of bin is at that distance.

We are also going to put a QR code in each bin. So, whenever somebody detects that a bin is full, just by scanning the code, marks that bin as full using the Bin Scan tab. That new information is updated in the app so when somebody else looks for that bin, the Bin Status tab offers that information.

What useful data are we recovering from that?

• We get the distance between one person and its nearest bin. That can help us in obtaining the mean distance in a neighbourhood which in turn tells us if that distance is a reason why people won't recycle in that neighbourhood. Another thing we can obtain from the mean distance between a person and a bin is whether there are enough bins in that neighbourhood and if we need to add new types of bins.
• We get the full fill-level frequency of a bin. That can help us in achieving route optimization which in turn leads to a better waste flow management. By that, we can also know whether there are enough bins in that neighbourhood.

STAGE 2

The second stage is an updated version of the plan. If the first one is well received, the user will no longer need to mark a bill as full. We want technology to do that for us. The cost of this stage is more expensive and "difficult" to implement because the city council will have to put this stage implementation out to tender.

The technology used to detect the fill-level of a bin is an ultrasonic sensor. Putting one sensor in each bin and connecting the sensor with the wEarth app, we can also tell the user the exact fill-level of a bin.

STAGE 3

The third stage is an extension of the plan. We want to reduce the amount of food thrown away.

We have designed a campaign called "Green fridge". With it, we want to implement fridges and food containers in streets so that everybody can bring food that they won't eat. That way, the homeless or people with reduced economy can give it a better use.

The best responsible consumption practice is to consume only what we need. That way we will reduce the amount of waste, but if for some case, we see ourselves in a situation where we don't know what to do with our food, we can use the green fridges.

EDUCATION PLAN

As Nelson Mandela says, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In wEarth, we offer different ways of learning:

1) Recycle it!

Recycle it! is another tab implemented in our app. You can use it to scan the bar code of any product in order to know to which bin goes.

2) Where does my trash go?

Interactive way of learning where your trash would end up if you don't recycle. With segments of 280 characters, or as they called a "Twitter thread", you will know anything about waste flow.

Where does my trash go?

3) Green tips

Learn about measures that you could adopt to help in the Green tips tab.

For example: You can bring fabric bags to put your fruits and vegetables when you go grocery shopping. Glass containers are an alternative option to plastic bags when buying fresh meat and fish.

WORLDWIDE

wEarth is a worldwide project. There are no borders between us. You can help whenever you are.

NASA RESOURCES

The UN Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform Used to inform ourselves about the SDGs.

The SDG Indicators Metadata Repository Used to know the progress of goals 11 and 12.

NASA OSCAR 1 degree ocean surface currents Used to know where the trash ends up if it is thrown into the ocean.

Tools and Guides by UN Habitat for SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) Indicators Used to get ideas to achieve the targets for goal 11.

There is no Planet B. Join us. Join the wEarth movement.

#wEarth #gogreen #ecoplanet #greentips