UWEPA! Platform

Long description

To transform the way Bogotá manages its waste by 2030, we will gradually build a local platform that inspires, connects, and empowers local waste management system stakeholders, policymakers, consumers, and producers. To achieve this, we will build on NELIS’s Global initiatives, diverse network, and experience.

Waste and the greenhouse gas emissions connected with it represent critical dimensions of the current climate and ecological crisis. To effectively tackle the complexity of this systemic crisis, people and stakeholders need to coordinate their efforts and mobilize collective action. We want to facilitate this in Bogotá: our hometown.

Bogotá buries about 7000 tons of waste per day in a landfill that will reach total capacity within two years. At least 70% of landfilled materials here could be diverted to generate more value, especially by involving more than 25000 registered waste pickers. To evolve towards a sustainable local waste system, we need to tackle pressing local challenges. These include the absence of reliable open data on waste, the lack of functional mapping tools for waste management alternatives, and perverse economic incentives that perpetuate unsustainable waste management practices.

Through physical and digital interfaces, the UWEPA! Platform (“Un-Waste our Earth Platform for Action”) will use a citizen science approach to develop a decentralized waste management data repository and visualization engine that will serve to map and connect relevant stakeholders, put pressure on key actors, and ignite behavioral and organizational change through artistic and creative means.

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