Smart waste stream collection in an inner-city environment

Abstract

Challenged to innovate towards full circularity and sustainability, both the waste management and inner-city transport industry are drastically changing in the Netherlands. Being a waste management organization that operates in these markets, PreZero is looking for new waste collection solutions to facilitate the transition towards circularity.

An envisioned solution for this new context could be in collaboration with parcel delivers that operate via hubs on the outskirts of cities. By letting them collect waste streams from inner-city customers while also delivering parcels, the electric vehicles that would otherwise return to the hub empty would be cleverly used.

The client is piloting this system in The Hague but is looking for a custom solution to fit the needs and wishes of all involved stakeholders. Therefore, the research question of this master thesis is:

How can a scalable product-service system for smart return logistics of source-separated commercial waste streams in an inner-city environment be designed and implemented by the client?

With the project aiming to develop a new business model and product, the entrepreneurial theory of ‘effectuation’ is applied as the theoretical framework of this thesis, and co-creation and qualitative research methods are selected for the approach. In a series of interviews and case studies, insights about the existing pilot are gathered, resulting in a set of means and potential goals to work with. Additional exercises like customer journey mapping the waste stream and value flow modeling the complex stakeholder context, enable the means and goals to be translated into a set of six potential value propositions for the future.

A design intervention is used to rapidly prototype the next iteration toward these potential value propositions and show the client how the effectual approach can be implemented. This design phase focuses on the various stakeholder contexts and uses a compact waste container and an MVP version of the waste collection bin to pilot the envisioned product-service system. Using phenomenological research, the designs are evaluated, resulting in a rich set of insights about the requirements and wishes for the system, container, bin, and involved partners.

All gathered insights are combined into four future visions that describe the potential strategic positions that the client could aim for. By detailing the business model, needed partners, targeted customers, and steps to be taken, the client is enabled to start implementing tomorrow. Posters visualize each future vision to bring the business models to life and empower the client’s project team to get the internal support needed to develop solutions towards one of these future roles.

Concluding the report, recommendations are given about what future vision to aim for and how to get there. With a drastically changing environment that is hard to predict, effectuation delivers a risk-limiting approach to co-create the future with involved stakeholders. Implements these insights from the report will support the client in its iterative journey towards the new business model.