LOGISTICS
Using AI-based solutions to improve waste logistics
to get ahead of it, by investing the necessar y time and resources now, leveraging new technologies and digitisation for planning.”
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lthough public waste management was deemed essential and continued operating under strict lockdown regulations, traditional waste collection models struggled to adjust to the changes brought on by the pandemic. Speaking at a webinar hosted by the IWMSA – on the topic ‘Ensuring robustness of waste logistics during challenging times’ – Elias Willemse, current CTO and co-founder of Waste Labs, noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has made ever yone realise how fragile and outdated most waste management collection systems are. “In Singapore, when the pandemic hit, the traditional systems struggled to adapt to change,” he said. Willemse says the traditional approach to managing abrupt changes introduced to the current operating systems is usually a trialand-error approach, which relies heavily on the knowledge of experienced personnel, taking lessons from other municipalities who have experienced similar problems or simply hiring consultants. However, Willemse said that this method has proved ineffective. “The alternative way to deal with such problems is simply
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Digital twin Waste Labs, a Singapore-based star t-up company, uses AI and software solutions to assist cities and waste collectors to digitise and improve their waste collection operations by developing what is called a digital twin. A digital twin is a digital replica/simulation of the actual physical waste system, which is then used for the purpose of planning different scenarios, optimisation of the system and diagnostics of existing systems. “One of the scenarios we’re currently building is to see what happens if you lose your waste collection resources. What happens if you have fewer drivers? What happens if you have fewer trucks? Where will the waste star t to pile up? And then where should you prioritise the resources that you have left. “Through our platform, we can easily test these scenarios. It’s vir tual – it’s on a computer. So, you can easily take resources out of the collection system on the platform, and then see how and where the waste piles up and all the rest of the collection resources should be assigned.” The first step is collecting all the necessar y population data through GPS tracking, load cells tracking (tracking the amount of waste collected on each route), or using synthetic populations. Although the use of synthetic populations is rare, Willemse
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact, not only on the economy but also on the waste management sector. As lockdowns were imposed around the world, municipal waste operators had to rapidly adapt their waste management systems to better accommodate increased household waste and a decreased workforce. By Nombulelo Manyana
stated South Africa is a leader in this par ticular aspect.
Developing synthetic populations Discussing his ar ticle titled ‘Synthetic populations of South African urban areas’, Professor Johan Jouber t in the Centre for Transpor t Development, Depar tment of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the
