Smart Waste Management: Advantages and Disadvantages

This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of a Smart Waste Management system.

What is a Smart Waste Management System?

Introduction: The concept of a smart city has emerged to enhance the quality of life for its inhabitants. Smart waste management is a crucial component of a smart city. Other components include smart security, smart energy management, smart healthcare infrastructure, smart mobility, and home automation and building technologies such as Zigbee and LoRa. Humans produce a massive amount of solid waste daily, leading to major disposal concerns.

Smart waste management employs smart dustbins and robotic road cleaners, coupled with smart transportation vehicles, to collect and compress waste. Smart mobility vehicles connect with smart dustbins via Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity over the internet. The system utilizes GPS and software applications to guide trucks along the shortest paths based on waste fill levels. Smart dustbins can also serve purposes such as ticket bookings, bill payments, and displaying advertisements. Underground garbage bins are installed to prevent open and untreated waste accumulation across cities.

Image courtesy: Ecube Labs

Smart bins are equipped with various sensors with specific functions. For example, fill-level sensors notify the waste collection team when bins reach 70% capacity, prompting timely clearance. In smart cities, sewage drain covers are fitted with sensors to detect sewage overflows, alerting relevant teams.

The image above depicts a solar-powered waste compactor bin from Ecube Labs, which has the following features:

• Intelligent waste compaction by monitoring fill levels in real-time using sensors. The information is relayed to clean city networks, which consist of teams dedicated to collecting waste from these smart bins.
• A solar panel on top converts solar energy into electrical energy, which is stored in a battery for situations when there is no sunlight.
• Protected by a polycarbonate shield that is resistant to external forces.
• Can hold up to 8 times more waste compared to normal waste bins.
• An intelligent safety sensor that stops the compaction cycle when it detects a human hand.
• A fire detection sensor that triggers an immediate notification to the emergency team in case of fire.
• Equipped with a bi-directional communication link that relays real-time information, including fill level capacity and collection efficiency.
• Available in different sizes. The larger size bins are compatible with wheelie bins available worldwide.
• Contains an LED backlit option for displaying advertisements to generate additional revenue. It is also visible at night.

Benefits or Advantages of Smart Waste Management

The following are the benefits or advantages of Smart Waste Management:

• Saves time and money: Smart waste collection bins and systems equipped with fill-level sensors ensure that transport vehicles only visit filled containers, reducing infrastructure, operating, and maintenance costs by up to 30%.
• Reduces traffic and noise pollution: Decreases traffic flow and noise due to fewer waste collection vehicles on the roads, made possible by two-way communication between smart dustbins and service operators.
• Promotes a clean and healthy environment: Keeps surroundings clean and green, free from the bad odors of waste, emphasizes a healthy environment, and makes cities more beautiful.
• Reduces manpower requirements: Further reduces the manpower needed to handle the garbage collection process.
• Optimizes management, resources, and costs: Applying smart waste management to a city optimizes management, resources, and costs, contributing to its status as a “smart city”.
• Generates extra revenue: Helps the administration generate extra revenue through advertisements on smart devices.

Drawbacks or Disadvantages of Smart Waste Management

The following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of Smart Waste Management:

• High initial cost: Requires more waste bins for separate waste collection based on the city’s population, leading to high initial costs due to the expensive smart dustbins compared to other methods.
• Limited memory: Sensor nodes used in dustbins have limited memory size.
• Technology limitations: Wireless technologies used in the system, such as Zigbee and Wi-Fi, have shorter ranges and lower data speeds. In RFID-based systems, RFID tags are affected by surrounding metal objects (if any).
• Unemployment: Reduces manpower requirements, potentially increasing unemployment for unskilled people.
• Training requirements: Requires training for the people involved in the smart waste management system.