Mobile app for smart waste management
Two mobile apps for a Central European company that builds smart waste management systems: an Android app for inspectors who check the quality of waste sorting, and an iOS and Android app for residents. EMBIQ has designed, built, tested and developed both since 2020.
Technologies used
React Native, TypeScript, Redux, React Navigation, NativeBase, Axios, Android, iOS, REST API, QR codes, maps
Tools
Figma, Jira, ESLint, Prettier, Git hooks, CI/CD
5
Project members
6 months
Project length
Mobile App, UI/UX Design
Category
Smart City
Branch
The challenge
The client is a technology company that develops devices and IT systems for municipal waste management, including systems that measure how well waste is sorted. In 2020 it needed an Android app for field inspectors: the inspector scans a label, takes photos, marks which fractions are inside and records the result of the inspection. The app had to run on devices supplied by the client, work against the client's existing API, and the first version was planned for four weeks. The second part was an app for residents on iOS and Android. Each household should see its own sorting results and statistics, find out which container a given item belongs in, and find the nearest collection point. Over the following years the scope grew with the client's product: new waste fractions, more than one backend API, additional languages, self-service features for drop-off points and a full visual redesign. The client needed a partner that could design, build, test and maintain both apps over the long term, not a one-off delivery.
The app is written in React Native, which allows you to write the same code for multiple platforms simultaneously. Thanks to this solution, the application is available not only on Android but also on iOS.
Key Features
- Android inspection app with label scanning, photo capture, fraction marking and an inspection summary sent to the client's API
- Protection against data loss when the inspector loses mobile signal
- Resident app for iOS and Android built in React Native and TypeScript from one codebase
- Sorting results and statistics: waste by fraction, yearly charts, calendar and history
- Map of collection points with clustering, and a waste search that points to the right bin
- Self-service modules: collection point accounts, service ordering, a notice board, payment and collection history
- Design and QA: mockups, store graphics, illustrations for an explainer animation, UI design and functional testing of the client's web platform
The result
The inspection app was delivered in autumn 2020 and then extended to handle additional waste fractions. After a design phase in 2021, the resident app was handed over in 2022 and published in the app stores. Since then the work has continued under one framework agreement, ordered in stages: statistics and billing rate views, support for new API versions and waste fractions, translations, and self-service features for collection points. The inspection app was moved to the new API and given new inspection logic. The apps are kept up to date as well as extended: React Native and Android SDK upgrades, a new map library on Android, terms and conditions fetched and refreshed automatically, stricter password rules and credentials sent only in request bodies. A redesign of the resident app, prepared in 2025, was implemented in 2026, and one of the modules is being migrated to the client's new API.
- Inspection app delivered in autumn 2020, with the first version planned for four weeks
- Resident app available in the app stores since 2022
- Continued development under one framework agreement since 2020
- Full redesign implemented in 2026, with the migration to the client's new API under way
My job was to create a solution that would have all the functions within one click on the screen. Icons were intuitive and connected very closely with the functionality. It is very friendly for users, they have no problems using it.
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Agnes
business development specialist
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