Waste is a complex challenge that requires collaboration between multiple stakeholders to achieve a circular economy. In this context, there is a growing demand for digital solutions that integrate physical and digital infrastructure to create digital waste governance systems. Analog management, without accurate data, is becoming increasingly unfeasible in light of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Tools such as online geographic information systems (WebGIS) allow the collection and integration of large volumes of physical and human data and the establishment of a digital governance structure that brings together different technologies, tools and methods in the same environment. This article aims to present the State of the Art on the topics of zero-waste cities, WebGIS, and disruptive innovation. The article starts from the hypothesis that only a process of disruptive and systemic innovation in the value chain and urban solid waste management (MSWMS), supported by the principle of zero-waste cities, circular economy and webGIS, can effectively help to solve this problem. The research uses an exploratory literature review on the concepts of zero-waste cities, systemic innovation and webGIS applied to waste management, linking them to the theoretical framework of sustainability as a science and to Brazilian public policies, such as the National Solid Waste Policy (Law 12.305/2010), the National Circular Economy Policy (Law 1.874/2022) and the National Digital Government Strategy of Brazil 2024–2027 (ENGD). As a result, scientific publications on zero-waste cities increased from 2018 to 2023 and several countries have adopted zero-waste guidelines in waste management policies. WebGIS, remote sensing, geoprocessing and different technologies are increasingly being incorporated into waste management, generating significant impacts on the diversion of resources from landfills, mitigating climate change, and generating and/or adding value to the useful life of waste and garbage resources, in addition to the optimization and efficiency of collection operators and citizen engagement in public policies. Disruptive innovation has proven to be a concrete process to enable the transition from obsolete sociotechnical systems (such as the linear economy), where sustainable finance and environmental entities play a fundamental role in orchestrating and coordinating the convergence of private, public and civil society actors towards this new sustainable development paradigm. The case study proved to be fruitful in proposing and encouraging the adoption of such methods and principles in municipal waste management, allowing us to outline a first conception of a digital government structure and digitalization of public services for zero-waste cities, as well as pointing out the difficulties of implementing and transforming these systems. This digital governance structure demonstrates the possibility of being replicable and scalable to other cities around the world, which can materialize an important tool for the implementation, articulation and development of a long-term sustainable development paradigm, based on the vision of the circular economy and zero-waste cities.

Contemporary urban governance faces structural obsolescence in municipal solid waste management, particularly in the Global South. This study analyzes the implementation of the Zero Waste Cities Platform, a digital public infrastructure (DPI) designed to facilitate the transition from linear to circular economies, within the context of the first public pro-curement for innovation in Florianópolis, Brazil. Using an embedded case study and a mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire administered to 125 citizens, the re-search evaluates the platform through four analytical lenses: institutional, political, terri-torial, and ecological. The implementation results demonstrate a 31% reduction in collec-tion route time and a 17% decrease in operational costs. Furthermore, cluster analysis of the questionnaire responses citizen a high latent potential for digital engagement, with 94% of respondents expressing willingness to use applications integrated into the nation-al governmental platform (Gov.br) to participate in recycling initiatives. The study con-cludes that “citizen digitalization,” when anchored in open DPIs and social innovation, acts as a systemic transition vector that reconfigures the roles of the state, cooperatives, and citizens. These findings provide empirically grounded insights for local governments seeking to combine emerging technologies, such as IoT and data intelligence, with demo-cratic experimentalism to accelerate ecological transitions and urban sustainability.