As much as Excel has evolved over the years, it still maintains the basic premise of being a spreadsheet where any type of information arranged in rows and columns is accepted. Waste management is much more complex than that and involves a set of appropriate actions in the stages of collection, storage, transport, treatment, disposal and environmentally appropriate final disposal that must be monitored continuously.

To obtain the best benefits from technology, companies must invest in improving their internal processes with the help of specific software for their needs and escape from generic spreadsheets that only solve the problem for a certain time, but in the long run do not meet the needs of a company that wants to make good use of the information generated.

An example of software aimed at waste management is meuResuoso. The system manages online data on the generation, transport and disposal of waste. The tool allows companies to have full control over all data related to their waste. Reports for environmental agencies and inventories, which without using the system would take days to be made, in myResidue are generated in a matter of seconds.

Among the benefits of investing in technology in waste management, the following stand out:

• assists in complying with the National Solid Waste Policy;
• facilitates information management and data centralization, avoiding rework and process failures;
• reduces the possibility of environmental liabilities and fines for the company;
• management and complete control of licenses, CADRI and other documents;
• optimizes the preparation of reports and inventories;
• generation of legal documents such as MTR and the Emergency Form;
• assists in meeting deadlines, with reminders and expiration alerts;
• establishment of waste reduction targets;
• generation of indicators and graphs to assist decision making and continuous improvement.

With the help of technology in waste management, it is possible to quickly detect the processes that generate greater amounts of waste, thus enabling more assertive improvement actions, reducing the amount of waste generated and, consequently, the costs of transportation and final destination.