Green-digital transition in municipal waste management: Ethnographic perspective on ‘smart’ waste monitoring and management system

This paper critically examines the Waste Monitoring and Management System (WMMS) implemented in several Polish cities as part of the green-digital transition. Positioned as a tool to advance green and digital transformation in waste management, WMMS promises to reduce environmental impact, improve recycling levels, and optimize waste collection. However, through ethnographic research, including 25 in-depth interviews and participant observations, the study reveals key discrepancies between these promises and the system's real-world outcomes. Rather than delivering environmental benefits, WMMS reinforces private sector control over municipal infrastructures, increases energy consumption due to extended data storage, and exacerbates issues of surveillance and data misrepresentation. These findings suggest that, despite the green-digital narrative, technologies like WMMS risk diverting attention from core environmental challenges by reducing complex ecological problems to technical solutions. The research underscores the need for more integrated approaches that balance technological innovation with local realities to achieve meaningful progress in green policy.