Digital Dashboard for Enhanced Waste Management in the Stockholm Municipality : Bridging Data Insights and Sustainable Practices

Abstract: The surging global trend in waste generation, currently surpassing 2 billion tons annually in cities,stands as a pressing concern amid escalating climate change threats. This master's thesis aims todesign a digital dashboard tailored to the needs of the Stockholm Municipality's waste managementsystem and its different stakeholders. While digitalization in the waste management sector remains inits early stages globally, this thesis presents an innovative approach to foster more efficient wastemanagement practices and advance sustainability goals through various data visualization techniques. To ensure the dashboard's effectiveness and relevance, this thesis revolves around two pivotalresearch questions. The first research question is: What are the needs and requirements of the wastemanagement sector in the Stockholm municipality for a digital waste dashboard? The second researchquestion is: How to visualize the performance of the waste management in the Stockholm municipalitythrough a digital dashboard? To answer these 2 questions, a research approach was employed. Sevenin-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders within the waste management sector inStockholm, revealing insights into their needs and requirements. These insights served as thefoundation for an initial prototype of the dashboard. This Initial prototype was followed by a designthinking workshop, held in collaboration with LocalLife, a startup working with climate digital solutionsfor local neighborhoods, to refine the initial prototype and generate new design ideas for thedashboard. The outcomes of this workshop were implemented on the initial prototype resulting in afinal set of interactive mockups of a waste management digital dashboard. The resulting digital dashboard design offers an interface with several data visualization capabilities.This empowers stakeholders, including waste management officials, city planners, and environmentalpolicymakers, to gain valuable insights into waste behavior. By analyzing real-time and historical data,these stakeholders can track progress, identify patterns, and anticipate future trends in wastegeneration, collection, and disposal. The dashboard facilitates informed decision-making by enablingusers to optimize resource allocation, implement targeted interventions, and develop evidence-basedwaste management strategies. This thesis demonstrates the capabilities of digitalization in wastemanagement and provides a tangible solution tailored to the unique challenges faced by the wastemanagement stakeholders in the Stockholm municipality.