The town of Cubas de la Sagra, Madrid, has launched a pilot program to improve the management process and municipal waste collection using mobile technology through a solution developed by everis in collaboration with Orange. This solution incorporates the technology standard NFC (Near Field Communications), an interconnect technology contactless device at close range, a centralized state management of urban waste containers.
This system, called ReciclaT (Recycle T) allows operators working on container collection routes to transmit information about the status of the containers: the location, the saturation level and the date and time of collection is transmitted instantly by simply swiping the NFC phone over a label on the container. The trial period is expected to last 3 months, and will also mean the local authority will be able to collect up-to-date, centralized statistics on the status of the containers and be able to take any necessary action.
Thus, thanks to Recycle T, the public service of waste collecting will improve taking advantage of the simplicity of using NFC technology, enabling a wide range of intuitive mobile phone services to be offered to both domestic and business markets.
With initiatives like this, Orange and everis clearly show their commitment to environmental stewardship. everis and Orange are working together to develop intelligent solutions that help reduce energy consumption in sectors such as construction, transport and logistics which means reducing total carbon emissions, highlighting the critical role of telecommunications for a sustainable economy.
The solution, developed by everis on an Orange communications platform, plan routes according to real needs in the different collection points and areas, and it will improve efficiency and productivity, control service levels and define special operating procedures. With this solution, the Council can ensure that containers are always free for optimal use by citizens, and improve the quality of service to citizens and environmental management.
The experience has been possible through the commitment of the town of Cubas de la Sagra, a municipality of nearly 5,000 people southwest of Madrid. The local authorities are involved with sustainable development and the use of new technologies as a means of improving service to citizens.
Federico Zarza Nuñez, mayor of Cubas de la Sagra, states: "the pride of the town of Cubas de la Sagra and the Department of Environment, always attentive to innovation and application of new technologies, to participate in this project pilot, pioneered the use of these new communication technologies for the efficient management of public services, in order to improve the quality of life of citizens."
The daily garbage collection service, and for almost the entire population underground containers are available. We have come to an agreement with Orange and everis "for the optimization of waste collection service in question, added Mayor Zarza.
Another pioneering project
In May 2008, Orange was the first operator in Spain to offer a payment and transport project based on NFC technology, namely the integration of Malaga area bus card and mobile phone. It is the European leader in promoting the development of NFC technology. The first such project was the “City Nice” project in France where over 3,000 users have access to services of transport, payment, tourism and loyalty schemes all via their NFC mobile phones.
In the words of Alicia Calvo, director of Innovation in Orange Spain, "NFC is a technology that will enable the development of new services in the domestic, government and businesses spheres. It facilitates the use of mobile phones in daily life settings through user experiences "tap & go", which is not confined only to the mobile payment application."
For its part, everis has since 2008, in its Telecom Laboratory, an area for the study and development of NFC solutions, applied to mobile phones. Several pilot projects have been developed in Spain and Latin America in the areas of Environment, Health and Education, making everis a benchmark company in the development of applications based on this technology.
As stated by Pablo Cabricano, everis innovation manager, "With the ubiquity mobile devices are reaching new features that provide technologies such as NFC. We must not miss the opportunity to reduce the number of devices that workers should carry with them in daily life."