ZEUS (Zero waste Environment User System)

What is ZEUS?

The Zero Waste SA Environment Users System (ZEUS) is a web-based system to provide a way to easily collect data on waste within South Australia. ZEUS allows Zero Waste SA to measure the State’s performance against targets set in the SA Strategic Plan. ZEUS is configured in a series of modules such as Illegal Dumping, Commercial and Industrial, and Construction and Demolition.

Why is Zero Waste SA offering this to councils?

Before ZEUS there was no way to gain a whole of state view on how large or small the illegal dumping issues are with evidence being mostly anecdotal. By developing ZEUS, Zero Waste SA is providing a way to gauge the problem and to target programs to assist councils in reducing the problem. This also extends to other waste types such as municipal solid waste. By agreeing on descriptions of waste and quantities collected, better ways of dealing with the problem can be developed.

Why should my council use ZEUS?

Many councils treat illegal dumping as ordinary waste when recording an incident and have no way to separate out the number of incidents and associated costs. ZEUS overcomes these problems by providing a centralised system to record each individual illegal dumping incident, associated costs, and report on what has been dealt with by a council over any time period.

Data can easily be retrieved from ZEUS in spreadsheet format for detailed analysis and reporting.
One bonus of ZEUS is that a council can see an overview report on what is happening in neighbouring councils and judge how its problems are compared to neighbours. This also applies to other programs such as Municipal Solid Waste where a report can compare a council to two others.

ZEUS is totally free software to councils and is supported by Zero Waste SA staff when any queries or problems arise. Training in ZEUS takes about 2 hours and provides council staff with the skills to enter, track and report on illegal dumping incidents and costs. Training is provided free of cost and user manuals are provided as part of training.

No software needs to be installed on a council computer to access ZEUS. All that is required is Internet Explorer as a web browser, a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to view reports and a spreadsheet program such as Excel to view data extracts from ZEUS. The majority of council computers would already meet these requirements.

ZEUS treats any costs entered with absolute security and privacy and does not permit others to view these figures for an individual council. Any figures released are composite figures totalled up to Metro/Non-Metro and State levels. These composite figures provide another measurement of the size of the problems.

For more information about ZEUS and to involve your council contact John Vanzo.