Measuring density of plastic bottle waste
At the end of 2021, we launched what we think is our most exciting feature so far: the Audit Areas tool. This allows users to measure build up of plastic by carrying out repeated audits in a defined geographical location.
This feature lets you:
- identify a specific named area that you can reuse for your brand or waste audit by drawing your boundaries within the map function in the app
- perform repeated brand audits on different dates in that audit area, using the ‘Group Activities’ feature
- view data from your selected audit area on wastebase.org
- measure the density of plastic in a specific area, using our ‘bottles per hectare’ concept
- monitor the effects of awareness raising campaigns or improved waste management
Why we think data has an important role in EPR
How to use the Wastebase Audit Areas feature
It’s easy to add an audit area. Once you’ve added it, you’ll find it in your audit area list in the Wastebase app.
Choose your audit area
Choose an area for regular audits which:
- is easy to access and safe to work in
- has clearly defined physical boundaries
- is representative of your city/locality
Good examples might be:
- a public garden or square
- a formal open air market
- a transport terminal
Size of audit area
We recommend choosing a smaller area that you can audit regularly and consistently, over a large area that might be hard to cover. Ideally, actual bottle collection should take a maximum of 1 hour. This would give you a half day (or a morning) to complete your waste audit.
- 1 hr: team travels to site (typically from different places)
- 15 mins prep and organization
- 1 hr: collecting bottles
- 15 mins sorting
- 15 mins logging the scans in app
- 1 hr: team goes to where they are going next
These travel times are conservative and depend on traffic. For cities like Nairobi or Lagos they could be double.
Add your area
Open the Wastebase app on your smartphone. Log in using your email. If you don’t have a login, hit ‘sign up’ and we’ll be in touch about how to get set up. You’ll need to be a user with:
- a validator role (we’ll explain this during the sign up process)
- an activated sharing nickname
Tap Menu > Audit Areas to open the Audit Areas screen.
Now tap the + icon to start registering a new area.
Define your area on the map
First, drag the map to position the + crosshairs at one corner of the area.
Then tap the + button to start drawing the area.
Drag the map to the next corner: a line will appear . Hit + again at each corner until you’ve added all of the boundaries and got back to your starting point.
Tap OK to save the area.
Give your area a name
Choose a unique name that is easy to remember (unless your area already has a name, such as a local park). This will help your team or volunteers identify the area for physical audits or when searching for data from an audit.
Once you’ve named and saved your area, you’ll see it in the ‘Audit Area’ list in your app. This screen shows all audit areas in your country (where you are using the app).
You can see all audit areas on our data dashboard at wastebase.org.
Connect your audit area to a Group Activity
If you’re carrying out a clean up or brand audit with other people, you can use our ‘Group Activity’ feature. This lets you set up an audit with a defined start and end time. If you want to, you can make your activity ‘public’ so that any Wastebase users nearby can see it and join in.
- choose ‘group activities’ from the home menu
- hit the + button to add an activity
- complete details of activity name, description, data and time
- choose your audit area from the list to link your activity to that area
- when you’re ready to start, your coordinator clicks ‘start’
- your team members can join via the app, perform scans and capture photos
- at the end of the audit, your coordinator clicks ‘end’
See your results
Once you’ve completed your activity in your chosen audit area, you can see:
- the results of your group activity, by selecting that activity in the ‘history’ section in your app
- a summary of data from all activities linked to that audit area at wastebase.org, by selecting your audit area from our dashboard
Find out more about group activities and audit areas in our app user guide
We’d love to hear your feedback on these features. You can get in touch with on Twitter @wastebase or by emailing community@unwaste.io.
