A smart tool to improve citizens' awareness on sustainable waste management practices in the Maltese Islands

Abstract

The National Waste Management Plan considers education and awareness to be the key to the success of sustainable waste management. 'Knowledge exchange' is rapidly expanding with the availability of evolving ICTs, empowering the digital citizen and ensuring good governance. Considering that smartphone penetration in the Maltese Islands is on the increase, this research analyses the novel concept of designing and developing a prototype of the 'mApp Recycle' app as a tool for disseminating the best available solutions and services on waste management to citizens in a smarter, faster, more effective and flexible manner. The 'mApp Recycle Research Conceptual Framework' is applied to identify the key waste related issues requiring awareness; design an app that exchanges knowledge on better waste management; and evaluate the effectiveness of mobile learning as a means of inducing pro-environmental behaviour. The 'mApp Recycle' caters for users of Android smartphone devices and the MIT App Inventor 2 web IDE is used to develop the tool, supporting the following three main constructs: open source, rapid development, and easy to learn interface. The 'mApp Recycle User Acceptance Model', establishes the determinants of user acceptance and usage behaviour. The field-based usability test infers that 'mApp Recycle' transmits persuasive arguments to the active citizens to fulfil their needs. The app motivates the users to adopt new pro-environmental behaviours vis-a-vis waste management, promoting new social norms and accepted behaviours. This dialogue confirms that mobile learning has the potential to redefine education and learning systems on waste management as personal, situational, collaborative, and lifelong.