International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems

ICICCS 2017
ICICCS 2018

IoT based solid waste management system for smart

city
Krishna Nirde 1, Prashant S. Mulay 2, Uttam M.Chaskar 3
1
Department of Mechatronics, College Of Engineering, Pune, Shivajinagar, Pune-411005, INDIA
2, 3
Department of Instrumentation & Control, College Of Engineering, Pune, Shivajinagar, Pune-411005, INDIA

Abstract: - take appropriate actions to collect it immediately and

Today, waste management from its inception to its disposal is
one of the important challenges for the municipal corporations in
all over the world. Dust bins placed across cities set at open places
are flooding because of increment in the waste each day and
making unhygienic condition for the citizens, to maintain a
strategic distance from such a circumstance we have proposed
wireless solid waste management system for smart cities which
allows municipal corporations to monitor status of dustbins
remotely over web server and keep cities clean very efficiently by
optimizing cost and time required for it. As soon as dustbin has
reached its maximum level, waste management department gets
alert via SMS via gsm module placed at dustbin so department can
send waste collector vehicle to respective location to collect
garbage. The objective of the project is to enhance practicality of
IoT based solid waste collection and management system for smart
city.
Keywords: - IoT, Waste management, PIC microcontroller,
GSM
I. INTRODUCTION
A smart solid waste bin operates to ensure the efficient
measurement of its status while consuming minimum energy.
At present, most of the cities around the world require
challenging solutions for solid waste management, as there is
rapid growth in residential areas and the economy. Solid waste
management is a costly urban service that consumes around
30% of Municipal Corporation’s annual budget in many
developing nations. After various surveys and study done by
numerous organizations it has been seen that factors affecting
effective solid waste management are due to improper
management and lack of cutting edge technology
infrastructure. Municipal authorities have inadequate
resources for waste management institutions to effectively
collect the waste generated. It becomes an excessive wastage
of resources when bins are collected that are filled up partially.
By optimizing the quantity and deployment of smarter
technology for waste collection and management activities can
be carried out very efficiently to reduce operational cost.
In today’s connected devices era, Internet of things
(IoT) technology is revolutionizing society in different
domains like healthcare, industrial automation, automobile
and smart cities. In this paper, we have proposed IoT internet
of things based smart waste management system which allows
waste management authorities to continuously monitor status
of dust bins placed at different locations and as per the status
efficiently. This is not a unique thought, for the usage of keen
trash container; the thought has existed for a long time.
Motivation for this work comes from “Integrated Sensing
Systems and Algorithms for Solid Waste Bin State
Management Automation” [1] have already presented sensing
system and algorithm for solid waste bin to automate the solid
waste management process. Several sensing methods have
been integrated and have combined their verdicts that offer the
detection of bin condition and its parameter measurement.
Though results and developed algorithms are efficient for
automatic bin status monitoring work lacks remote monitoring
of bin. So, in this paper we have proposed system which can
be deployed in general purpose dust bins placed at public
places and which allows us to monitor its status remotely over
web browser for efficient waste management.
Figure (1). General purpose Dustbin
II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The proposed system offers remote monitoring of the real time
bin status data from two sensing systems: waste filled level
sensing, weight sensing. Explicit of the individual systems are
described below. The sensing of waste filling level inside a bin
is based on the measurement of the time of flight i.e. the time
taken by an ultrasonic pulse to transmit and receive its
reflected echo between the sensor and the sensed material
level. The weight estimation of the waste inside a bin is based
on the principle of an electrical conductor whose resistance
changes when its length changes due to stress and it is
virtually proportional to the applied strain. A Wheatstone
Bridge Network is formed by using four strain gauges with

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four separate resistors. Waste inside the bin causes a variation

in value of one or more resistors due to the generated strain.
Thus, the bridge output voltage is changed with this variation
in resistance which is proportional to the weight of the waste.

III. PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

Things (inserted gadgets) that are associated with the

Internet and occasionally these gadgets can be checked from
the web are regularly called as IoT i.e. Internet of Things. In
this framework dustbins are arranged at different locations.
The Smart clean dustbins are related with the web to get the
ongoing status. Two ultrasonic sensors are settled at the
highest point of the dustbin to avoid inaccurate level
measurement and is interfaced with PIC microcontroller.
Weight sensor is placed at the base of the dustbin and is
additionally interfaced with controller to recognize over
weight of the junk filled in the dustbin. Both sensors send the
signals to the controller. The RF-transmitter encode the
information originating from PIC and send to Arduino unit
which acts as receiver, it sends the information to RF-collector
which is associated with the Arduino Ethernet shield. Arduino
collects information received by the collector and transfer on
website page through the Ethernet shield. Figure (3). System flowchart

IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND

IMPLEMENTATION

Using a set of carefully chosen sensors, we have implemented

Figure (2). Block diagram of proposed system
Ultrasonic sensor is used to check the level status of dust
bin so to determine if it is full or empty, while Load cell
senses the weight of the garbage present in the dustbin and to
determine if the threshold limit is reached or not. Algorithm
has developed which checks filled level continuously and if
dustbin is filled to its maximum limit then there is indication
on LCD display at the same time the encoded signal will be
transferred by RF transmitter. RF receiver receives the data
which is then transferred to the arduino modem connected
with the Ethernet shield. Active status of dustbin is shown on
web page using connections through Ethernet shield.
Simplified flowchart of proposed system is shown in figure
(3). Monitoring the webpage will help the garbage collection
department to track for the exact location and amount of the
garbage. The garbage vehicles can then unload the garbage
from a particular location. The function of GSM module is to
send a message to the garbage collection department.
solid waste management system which is described previous
sections. For the lab experiment, we have not considered the
detailed manufacturing problems. Dust bin used for
experiment is having cross section 12 X 12 X 25cm, weight
380 gm and capacity of 3 litres. To avoid inaccurate and
misleading level measurements we have installed two
ultrasonic sensors (HC-SR04) at the top of dust bin. Ultrasonic
ranging module HC - SR04 provides 2cm - 400cm non-contact
measurement function, the ranging accuracy can reach to
3mm. The modules includes ultrasonic transmitters, receiver
and control circuit. Using input trigger for at least 10us high
level signal, the module automatically sends eight 40 kHz and
detect whether there is a pulse signal back. If the signal back,
through high level , time of high output duration is the time
from sending ultrasonic to returning. On the other side load
cell (TAL220) is installed at bottom of dustbin. TAL220 is
straight bar load cell made up from an aluminum-alloy and has
four strain gauges that are hooked up in a Wheatstone
bridge formation. It is capable of reading a capacity of 10kg.

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and which resulted in unbalanced level of garbage in bin. As

per readings maximum weight of the bin we have got is 1.6 kg
at approximately 23 cm while total height of bin is 25 cm. For
experimental purpose, the bin is unloaded only when it
becomes overloaded. The overloaded status is shown by a
value of “--” for waste filling.

Test No. Level Level Weight Status

sensor sensor B (Kg)
A (cm) (cm)
1 0.32 0.51 0 Almost
empty
2 1.28 1.04 0.30 Partially
Figure (4). Experimental setup filled
We have also developed web page which allows us remote 3 3.81 4.15 0.42 Partially
monitoring of the real time bin status. HTML code was written filled
to design graphical user interface (GUI). As shown in Figure 4 8.37 8.94 0.75 Partially
(5) web page provides information regarding location of filled
dustbin placed, its status, name and contact details of the 5 - - 1.6 Overload
coordinator in that respective area. Real time status i.e. full or
empty is shown on the web page and if it is full SMS is sent 6 22.30 23.47 1.5 Almost
via GSM module to coordinator. full
7 15.93 11.59 1.24 Partially
filled
8 15.92 9.84 0.95 Partially
filled
9 15.95 10.29 1.1 Partially
filled
10 0.75 0.85 0.15 Almost
empty
Table (1) .Experimental data from several tests run of the prototype

We have also verified the status of bin over web page

designed for remote monitoring of dustbins placed at different
locations. Web page shows the area location of dust bin and
status i.e. whether it is full or empty and name and contact
details of the coordinator in that respective area.
Figure (5). Dedicated web page to remotely monitor status of dustbin

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

We have performed 10 test runs which completed 2 full cycles

of loading and unloading of garbage. The empirical outcomes
shown in Table (1), and figure (6) represent the bin filling
level values for both ultrasonic sensors placed at top of the
bin, weight of waste inside the bin and respective status.
Various possible combinations have been tested to assess
performance of proposed prototype under different conditions.
As shown in Table (1), if the bin is almost empty level shown
by both ultrasonic sensors is less than 1 cm for filling level
and 0 kg weight by load cell. Gradually, we loaded bin with
garbage and recorded readings for the same. At certain point
when bin was fully filled no values were displayed by both
ultrasonic sensor and load cell this is nothing but overload
condition. Again we unloaded the garbage from bin which has
shown us large variation in values of level sensor A and B,
because garbage was mainly unloaded from right side of bin

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Figure (6). Measured filling level readings by both sensors A & B
After getting overload status notification when we unloaded
the garbage, we see large variation in values of level sensors A
and B as garbage was inclined to left side of the bin. Figure
(7) shows relationship of filling levels and weight of the bin
while loading and unloading operations. For conditions where
there is large deviation in values of both level sensors we can
take average of that two values and minimize error.
Figure (7). Measured filling level for both level sensor A &B versus weight of
dustbin indicated by load cell
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper improves practicality of IoT based solid waste
collection and management system for smart city.The
integrated sensing system is designed using ultrasonic sensor
and load cell to offer a proficient and automatic dustbin status
monitoring system. Still there is good scope for improvement
in algorithm which synthesize bin operative situation, its
status, time threshold and loaded status perception. Optimizing
power required for the system would also be a challenge.
Numbers of test runs were performed for assessment of
proposed system.
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