Sofia

Description of the challenge and of the envisaged solution(s)

Sofia is the capital city of Bulgaria with 1.3 million inhabitants. In recent years, it has been implementing a large-scale integrated strategy for waste management (known as Municipal Waste Management Programme 2021-2028) built on the principles of sustainable development, circular economy and the European Union legislation. This strategy includes a combination of “hard” and “soft” investments, such as:
1. Building a network of up to 40 recycling centres for separate collection at source of different types of household waste, like packaging (plastic, cardboard and glass), textiles, e-waste, batteries, etc. The first 5 centres are foreseen to be operational in the beginning of 2025;
2. Upgrade of an existing web platform, waste.sofia.bg, which together with its associated contact centre* provides extensive information to citizens on all
waste management and segregation activities of the Municipality.

Crucial for the success of the strategy is the active engagement of all stakeholders, especially households, in its implementation. To that end, a substantial educational effort is acknowledged as needed to modify the current, predominant habits and behaviours of Sofia citizens in the practice of waste separation and disposal. Our challenge is to support this educational effort with a combination of technology innovation and smart content delivery.

Solutions envisaged

socio-technical systems based on smart combinations of software (such as IT platforms and apps) and hardware (such as IoT sensors, QR codes, mobile and desktop devices) that help provide efficient and effective two-way communication and information on issues related to sustainable waste management and the circular economy within the Sofia Municipality. From the citizens perspective, extensive and updated information should be made available to them on:

• What exactly sustainable waste management is about?
• Why reducing, reusing and recycling of our waste is so important and what are the benefits of separate waste collection to the urban environment, circular economy and climate change adaptation?
  • How does the waste segregation system work? How can we all become part of the process?
  • What is the available infrastructure for managing different waste streams in our specific neighbourhood and how can we use it?
  • How can we contribute to improving the system functioning and report problems?

As an example, this might be achieved through an AI-powered Question-and-Answer (Q&A) service, integrated in the existing online information platform waste.sofia.bg, and optimized for both mobile and desktop devices. However, the Q&A service should be accompanied by the experimentation of innovative ways of testing its effects on the population (see further). From the City Administration perspective, the goals are to:

Better understand the waste management behaviour of the people living in Sofia;
Educate citizens on the benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling waste and the relation of this aspect with sustainable urban development and climate
change adaptation, fostering a culture of environmental responsibility in the population;

Inform citizens about available options for properly disposing the various waste streams generated in their households;
Promote responsible consumer behaviours and the creation of sustainable waste management habits;
Reduce the cost for Sofia Municipality of communication distribution and community engagement;
• Receive timely information about problems and malfunctions of the waste management system;
• Decrease the volume of mixed waste disposal by the Sofia households;
• Increase the volume and the quality of the waste that is separately collected and thus recycled;
• Take advantage from an evidence based decision-making process in the waste management domain;
• Contribute to the sustainable development of the city and the improvement of quality of life for its inhabitants.

As an example, this might be achieved through installing sensors or QR codes in the first 5 of the 40 recycling centres that are soon becoming available in the city, to gain information on people’s behaviours and share it on their smartphones as well as (anonymously) in a central database held by the City. This should be coupled with the delivery of targeted thematic contents to (especially) Sofia households as explained above. The solution should therefore provide evidence on its performance, including retrieving data from Municipal databases and other external sources and integrating them with directly generated data relevant to the Sofia waste management system. If successful, the solution will be widely adopted in the city of Sofia, including being installed in all its recycling centres.

*Accessible to all residents for submitting inquiries, complaints, etc. related to all types of issues in the urban environment of Sofia – not limited to waste management – and operating 24 hours – 7 days a week

Information on the location of the experimentation

The solutions will be piloted in the first 5 of the 40 recycling centres, which are to be localised during 2025 in the territory of the Municipality. Currently three locations are identified, in the Sofia Municipality districts of Nadejda (2 centres) and Oborishte (1 centre). The location of the remaining two centres will be defined at a later stage, but before the start of pilot experimentation activities.

Specific requirements include one or more of the points below

Specific requirements include one or more of the points below:
– Solutions that use Bulgarian as leading language;
– Solutions that are freely accessible and operational 24/7;
– Solutions that embed gamification aspects;
– Solutions that include guidelines on how to use the technologies and services provided;
– Solutions that are optimised for both mobile (smartphones and tablet PCs, with Android and/or IOS operating systems) and desktop devices;
• Solutions that are compliant with EU and national legislation, as well as the City regulations.

Minimum requirements

Data usage

“The solution should at least rely on the following datasets”: See points 2-3-4 below.

Data acquisition

“The provider should at least acquire the following datasets”: Third party data describing the pilot characteristics, preferably in a state ready for publication as open data (i.e. anonymised).

Data availability

“The solution should at least generate the following datasets”:
• Number of citizens/users involved

• (Anonymous) demographic information such as age, level of education and other relevant data
• Geo locations of the recycling centres
• Real time reports on problems and malfunctions such as overflowing bins and damaged containers
• Real time answers to questions about waste separation and recycling (in English and in Bulgarian)
• FAQs (in English and in Bulgarian)
• Static educational resources about sustainable practices
• Historical data on system and service functioning.

Data generation

“The solution should at least generate the following datasets”:

• Number of citizens/users involved
• (Anonymous) demographic information such as age, level
• of education and other relevant data
• Geo locations of the recycling centres
• Real time reports on problems and malfunctions such as overflowing bins and damaged containers
• Real time answers to questions about waste separation and recycling (in English and in Bulgarian)
• FAQs (in English and in Bulgarian)
• Static educational resources about sustainable practices
• Historical data on system and service functioning.

Data visualisation

“The solution should at least enable visualisation of the following datasets:” Same as point 4 above.

Socio-technical solution A

“The active engagement of citizens/users should at least be ensured during the 9 months of experimentation”

Socio-technical solution B

“The way active engagement of citizens will contribute to a better performance of the solution should be described in detail”

Socio-technical solution C

“A minimum number of 100 citizens should be engaged by the provider during the 9 months of experimentation”

Socio-technical solution D

“The solution should at least demonstrate impacts on the following citizen/user behaviours”:

• Access to and interaction with the web platform
• waste.sofia.bg and its associated contact centre
• Use of the recycling centres by the general public
• Increase of selectively disposed waste quantities.

Socio-technical solution E

“The provider should involve at least two of the following local stakeholders during the 9 months of experimentation”: Sofia Municipality, Municipal Enterprise “Municipal Waste Treatment Plant”, Sofia Municipality Inspectorate.

Interoperability

“The solution should at least be interoperable with the following existing IT systems”: waste.sofia.bg, the waste management information system of Sofia
Municipality and the contact centre of Sofia Municipality.

Privacy

“Use of the solution should not imply the release of personal data unless for specific and motivated purposes, as required by GDPR”

Sandbox

“The provider should specify which rules/regulations should be temporarily lifted for the purpose of the experimentation”

Scalability

“The provider should specify how the solution can be scaled from the site of experimentation to the broad City level”

Transferability

“The provider should specify the conditions under which the same solution can be adopted by other Cities with similar challenges”

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To participate to the tender, please read our tender documentation, this page is a simple overview about the challenge. To visit the documentation, click on the green button below.