Call for contributions: the 4th Industrial Revolution in practice

The 4^th Industrial Revolution goes on and its impacts are becoming gradually an integral part of our daily experiences. Take the examples of drone; their use to monitor landfills is now a promising business field and it’s going to deliver more, as Nicolas Marino Proietti, CEO and founder of ReSource International recently wrote in ISWA’s blog.

Take another example: the city of Bergen has already thousands of sensors to manage its collection system and it has adopted a fully automated underground collection system  – the management of its vast big data set is a serious challenge that needs advanced Artificial intelligence techniques to be managed.

The potential to use blockchain techniques to stimulate circular economy and materials management has already started and some people already speak about the Internet of Materials.

The market for hazardous environment waste handling robots is expected to to grow at a CAGR of 16.64% during the period 2017-2021!

Those are some pieces of the great puzzle that is under construction by thousands of stakeholders worldwide. We do not know when this puzzle will reveal its final shape. We do know that its most surprising and groundbreaking pieces, the ones that will reshape our industry, are already here, even if they are not always visible.

ISWA has started the discussion on the 4^th Industrial Revolution and its impacts to waste management with its global survey. Now, after the support and the enthusiastic comments we received for this initiative, the time has come for the next step.

We have already started the preparation for our next report that will present a collection of specific case studies in which the 4^th industrial revolution is already reshaping waste management practices. Robots and their use, advanced sensors for waste collection, the evolution of driverless waste vehicles, big data sets and their importance, drones for landfill management, 3D printers applications for recycling, mobile apps to stimulate recycling and other similar projects will be presented in a way that will demonstrate and promote the best practices.

We are asking all ISWA members to contribute to this report by providing relevant case studies and projects of interest.

We are asking all companies, municipalities and startups that are interested to demonstrate their work related to the advances of the 4^th industrial revolution in waste management to contact directly me (at amavrop@gmail.com ) and Mrs. Georgina Nitzsche (at gnitzsche@iswa.org) to discuss the content and the details of the report.

Let’s work together to demonstrate that the 4^th Industrial Revolution can improve both the environmental and the social footprint of waste management in practice!