A New Era of Waste Management: ECOVE’s Smart One-Stop Service

With over 20 years of experience in waste disposal management and service, ECOVE Waste Management Corporation (ECOVE WMC), a subsidiary of ECOVE Environment Corporation (ECOVE), is committed to providing total solution services in waste clearance/disposal and recycling for its corporate customers. Besides maintaining precise control over the quality and quantity of waste during the waste management process, ECOVE WMC also strives to advocate resource cycling to front-end waste generating sources. This article summarizes ECOVE WMC's efforts in integrating intelligence and innovation to build its "waste management information system" and "fleet management system" platforms. From waste reception at the plant all the way to the disposal process, ECOVE WMC has pioneered new waste management practices to provide a smart, one-stop service to customers.

Develop "Waste Management Information System" to Effectively Integrate Over 10,000 Businesses Throughout the Market

Given that the qualities and quantities of waste are becoming more and more varied due to technological and industrial development, and the fact that there is an imbalance between certain waste generation and disposal, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has actively formulated an "Industrial Waste Report and Management System" to control the quantities and flow of waste. The EPA has specified that designated business institutions shall report their waste generation online before waste clearance, and the waste disposal companies shall also confirm the waste reception status online, and install GPS to track and control the flow of the waste throughout the clearance process.

ECOVE began its waste clearance business in 2001. With years of experience in operation and management, it has built its own "waste management information system" platform in 2004, based on the actual operating models of its Energy-from-Waste (EfW) plants. The platform allows ECOVE to maintain complete and rigorous control over regulated and non-regulated industrial waste reception management. ECOVE further integrated big data and cloud computing platform in its research and development in 2016 to optimize and upgrade the system. This allowed the company to provide the clearance operators with more precise information and data, as well as smarter services. To make the system more adaptive to the users' needs, we worked with the clearance operator by simulating the login process as well as the management and tracking of waste flow, thereby enabling a report and management model that is more stable and reliable. Currently, the system has effectively matched hundreds of clearance operators with over 10,000 businesses, as well as processed over 5,000 declarations monthly. The system has significantly increased waste reception efficiency and overall management effectiveness, thereby earning high praise from users.

This information system effectively manages and forecasts incoming waste through four major functions, including "decentralized storage and centralized access," "real-time data query," "statistical query," and "optimized management performance." Moreover, the dispatch management function on the system can assist clearance operators to build customer data, including statistical query functions. Features include:

• Create basic customer data and names/ codes of waste that needs to be cleared.
• Manage the status of waste reception based on its type and approved volume.
• Set up multiple "clearance routes" so that work can be assigned based on waste clearance locations and waste type.
• Ease declaration process to the EPA through the platform.
• Offers multiple queries, statistical charts, and generated reports regarding waste clearance.

The platform allows simultaneous and collective processing of information on a larger scale. Moreover, it allows multiple access and data query at the same time, allowing for a more efficient waste clearance process.

Develop "Fleet Management System" to Maintain Real-time Control over Clearance Process

Clearance is a crucial part of the waste disposal process, as waste needs to be properly transported to disposal or reuse facilities/institutions before further treatment. However, clearance management is not as easy as it seems, as clearance involves many uncertainties in terms of frequency, location, timing, manpower, vehicle management, scheduling difficulties, and lack of real-time control. In this respect, this year ECOVE has successfully applied the internet, IoT, GPS, new mobile technologies, and other integrated technologies to develop a "fleet management system," which is now up and running. The system is now used to monitor and manage driving conditions, clearance operations, clearance performance, and work safety. It enhances driver safety and work procedures by making the latter more efficient and intelligent. Examples of clearance management practices and benefits include:

• Use mobile devices to flexibly adjust clearance routes and vehicles, thus meeting the clearance needs of enterprises.
• Stay on top of employee attendance and their rest conditions, so as to provide real-time care to drivers' physical and mental well-being, and make schedule adjustments where necessary.
• Use mobile devices to perform and report automatic inspection checks on the operating environment and equipment, in accordance to the pre-, mid-, and post-operation standards. This allows timely troubleshooting when abnormalities occur.
• With cloud-based videos center, all vision-based driver-assistance systems now cover the interior, front, rear, left rear, right rear, and right front of the car to improve clearance driver's safety. Driving speed can also be monitored in real time online.
• An alert will be sounded when a vehicle goes off its designated route to ensure that the waste is disposed of in compliance with the laws.
• Keep track of the overall fleet's operational information, including vehicle conditions, cumulative mileage, and fuel consumption rate.
• Manage the registration information and maintenance records of all vehicles. The system will proactively notify management personnel of car maintenance or scheduled inspections to ensure that all vehicles are performing at optimal conditions.

In addition, the “fleet management system” that is now deployed in waste clearance operations commissioned by enterprises is in line with EPA’s policy¹  to encourage online reporting. The system is designed to achieve electronic, paperless, and real-time waste reporting process and to effectively manage the quantities, types, clearance, and reuse of waste nationwide. This is a continuous improvement of workflow and operational efficiency. 

The Most Reliable Service Provider Encompassing Waste Clearance, Disposal to Resource Cycling

When it comes to waste clearance, the top priority for any enterprise is to seek legal² and integrative solution. That is the trend of domestic waste clearance. All data required for waste clearance, disposal, or recycling can be uniformly fed into the system and utilized. Data can be uploaded and accessed in real-time, no matter at which stage. There is no other way to waste disposal other than making sure the whole process is safe and fully compliant with the law. Transparency and legality of waste clearance is becoming ever more important as the Waste Disposal Act becomes increasingly rigorous.

With a vision to become "the most reliable provider of industry-leading resource cycling services," ECOVE will continue to utilize new technologies to help businesses better manage their operations and properly dispose of waste. ECOVE will expand its scope of service within the realm of circular economy, making sure that “every resource indeed counts,” and contribute to the sustainability of our environment. By entrusting ECOVE, enterprises are in good hands. 

Note:

 ¹ Refer to EPA’s policy on “the format, items, content and frequency when reporting via the internet the circumstances regarding the production, storage, clearance, disposal, reuse, export, import, transit and transshipment of waste at issue," in association with the Waste Disposal Act.

² The Waste Disposal Act, Article 30, Paragraph 1 stipulates that "an enterprise that fails to ensure proper clearance and treatment of its waste by a commissioned public or private agency shall take up joint liability with such agency in waste clearance and environmental improvement."