New software solutions in material flow transparency
Various software solutions are being used to document and evaluate material flows and recycling performance in the Swico/SENS recycling system. Two of these tools were updated in 2025. The primary goal was to make them more user-friendly and efficient, and to increase transparency of material flows in particular.
Material flow tally
At the beginning of each year, the recycling partners prepare a material flow tally for Swico and SENS based on their internal documentation. This tally records all waste electrical and electronic equipment received and processed, for the professional disposal and recycling of which the recycling partners receive remuneration in the form of the advance recycling contribution. In addition to the volumes of processed appliances and resulting fractions, the material flow tally also records information on who is returning and who is accepting the materials. This allows mapping and tracing of material flows between the recycling partners and the processing routes for fractions that undergo further processing or end use outside of the Swico/SENS system. This data processing is complex, but it’s a key process. The data collected during processing is the basis for the figures published annually in the technical report on processing volumes, pollutant removal and recyclable materials in the Swico/SENS recycling system. Verifying the processing routes and, in particular, the recipients of fractions with stricter information requirements is a further key component of the annual Swico/SENS audits.
Data capture difficulties
The material flow tally was recorded using Toocy software up to the data year 2023. However, this software has no longer been state of the art for a number of years now, and required cumbersome input and increasingly caused technical problems during capture as well. The required verification steps and analyses could not be carried out directly in the software either, , which led to considerable extra effort for the Technical Commission every year. In a number of areas, the categorisation of appliances and fractions used in Toocy was incompatible with the categorisation used by both the federal government and the cantons and set out in waste legislation, resulting in a certain lack of transparency and further inefficiency.
Developing the new material flow software
These difficulties meant a new solution was required to document and control material flows. To tackle this challenge, a project team consisting of the technical managers of the systems and members of the Swico/SENS Technical Commission (TC) was established. In a preliminary project conducted in 2022, the requirements for new software were drawn up with selective involvement of recycling partners (Figure 1). It soon became clear that existing software solutions could not fully meet the requirements, so a tendering process for a custom development was launched in early 2023, and a suitable partner for the realisation was found inILU Ingenieure AG. As developers of the ARVIS software, which is used for the material accounting of Swiss construction material recycling plants, the experts from ILU Ingenieure AG quickly grasped the requirements and demonstrated the opportunities of a new development based on the existing framework of the ARVIS software. An initial demo version was created in 2023, serving as proof of concept, and the decision was made to green-light the project. The new software was scheduled to go live on 1 January 2025 and its predecessor, Toocy, was to be definitively discontinued. Meeting this ambitious schedule required a busy year of hard work, which incorporated substantiation of the requirements in joint workshops, an intensive development and testing phase, acceptance, and initial user orientation.
Capture and verification in the new WEEE flow software
In December 2024, the recycling partners were given access to the new WEEE flow software to check initial information and get to know the programme. The first material flows were than captured in WEEE flow in January 2025. In-person training sessions were offered in German, French and Italian so users could familiarise themselves with the software. The inspection bodies Swico and SENS also made additional capacities available for guidance and support in the input phase. The recycling partners then had until 28 February to enter their material flow data, with few problems reported. Recycling partners have been highly positive in their feedback, noting in particular that the new solution is far more user-friendly.
After entry, the material flows are verified and subjected to plausibility checks by the TC’s material flow managers. WEEE flow calculates key figures for this purpose and generates automatic comparisons, which significantly simplifies these verification steps. Where corrections are required, comments can be left on the corresponding entries with the material flow rejected for further processing. This verification was still ongoing at time of writing. Based on initial experience, we can assume that there will be a significant increase in efficiency and streamlining of processes.
Outlook
In addition to capture and verification modules, WEEE flow also includes a tool for evaluating material flow data. This opens up new options in areas like data preparation and analysis for quantifying recycling services in the Swico/SENS system. In addition, these functions allow faster extraction of information that is relevant for audits, not to mention more efficient preparation and execution of the verification step. These evaluation functions are still under development, as the capture and verification modules were prioritised due to the ambitious schedule. The evaluation module will be finalised following completion of the first round of data capture in April. That means these functions will be available for the 2025 audits, which generally take place between May and October.
The feedback and insights gained from experience with capture, verification and evaluation will also be analysed later in the year. Improvements and optimisations can then be implemented in consultation with the Swico and SENS Steering Committee for the next round of data capture in January 2026.
Updating RepTool for evaluating batch tests
Swico and SENS auditors have been using RepTool, a European software solution, for around 15 years to document and evaluate batch tests. A new version of this software was released by the European WEEE Forum Team in early 2025. The auditors will test this version over the course of the year to gain initial experience. Operations will switch over to the new version in due course, although this will not affect the execution of batch tests. The new software will give not just auditors, but also recycling partners, a better understanding of how batch data is entered, and how recycling and recovery quotas are calculated. The software also has the potential to facilitate the capture of processing method information from secondary recipients, which will aid traceability; here, secondary recipients can enter detailed information directly in the software. This data is only visible to the inspection body and not to the recycling partners, which means that the inspection requirements are met while sensitive information remains protected.