How Students Are Participating To Make Clean India a Success!

In the last century, the world has seen a tremendous leap in technology. With this leap, the production of goods has also increased, which has resulted in an ever increasing amount of waste. Developing countries, due to the lack of a proper waste management program, are facing serious issues of waste disposal. In India, PM Narendra Modi has initiated the Clean India Movement also known as “Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan” to tackle this problem. This program is slowly helping us move towards a cleaner India. Inspired from these developments, students and researchers all over the country are coming up with ways to tackle waste disposal effectively. One such example is a project implemented by a three member team of SRM University titled Smart Waste Tracking using IoT with Waste Segregation System.

Inspiration for the project

A casual glance at your surroundings will tell you about the severity of waste management issues. There are no proper dumping areas for waste disposal. Even if there are designated areas for dumping waste, all the waste is dumped together without separating the waste into recyclable and non recyclable waste. As a result, waste that could have been recycled into different materials is thrown away. A simple solution to this problem is to segregate the waste at the household level. This project does just that. Just throw the waste into the system and it will automatically segregate the waste into metallic, glass or plastic waste.

Why Did the Students Chose This Project

As mentioned previously, waste disposal is a serious issue. Isolation of waste at dumping locales expends additional time and labor. Sorting of waste at the base level (residential level) helps in the appropriate reuse and transfer of waste to the dumping locations. The students at SRM University have come up with a simple solution to effectively isolate and track the waste from each household. The primary objective of this project is to help in the recycling of waste by helping to segregate the waste at the household level. Additionally, the waste from each household is tracked and a database is maintained. The authorities will have information on how much and what type of waste each house is producing. This, in turn, will enable the authorities to come up with an effective waste management plan that is suited to a particular locality. For example, if a locality mainly produces metallic waste, then a metal recycling plant can be set up near that area. This will not only enable fast recycling of waste, it will also help to keep the environment clean.

How does the system work?

The project involves two major parts. The first part is the segregation of waste, while the second part is the waste tracking. Let us look into each of the part separately.

1. Waste Segregation Module:

• The waste isolation framework essentially comprises of a framework that can isolate materials into three classes; to be specific:
• Metal
• Plastic
• Glass
• The sensors are attached to an incline on which the waste passes. As the waste passes by each sensor, the sensors activate depending upon the nature of the waste. Based on the response of the switch, the microcontroller is programmed to classify the waste based on its properties. For example, the Capacitive Proximity Switch cannot detect plastic waste. This principle can be used to segregate plastic waste out of all the wastes. Similarly, the inductive proximity switch is used to differentiate metal waste, and it cannot be used for the detection of any other material. The IR sensor is used to control the entire system. Whenever a waste material enters the flap, it is the IR sensor that activates the entire system. In case, there is no dumping of wastes, the whole system is de activated in order to save power.
• A supporting diagram of the project is given in Fig 1. It represents the waste segregation diagram with all the sensors and other necessary components attached to it.

2. Waste Tracking Module

The working of the system is quite simple. The Arduino Mega forms the heart of the system. An IR sensor is fit in the dustbin at a predefined height. When the waste fills up to this height, the IR sensor notifies the controller. Each dustbin is fitted with a RFID tag and sensor. Upon receiving the notification from the IR sensor, the controller reads the ID inside the tag via the RFID Reader. This ID is then sent to a remote server via the GSM Modem (Using a GPRS connection). The remote server keeps track of how much waste is there in each dustbin. The ID also contains the information about the owner of the bins, the type of bin and the location of the dustbins. The above diagram explains the working of the system:

The load sensor is used to measure the weight of the dustbin. The entire information is then relayed to a remote server via the GSM Modem and is stored there. This way, the information about an entire locality can be stored and analysed on the server. For example, if locality A is producing a large amount of plastic waste, then the appropriate plastic processing plant must be set up near that area so that the waste plastic can be processed properly.

Therefore, an entire waste management system can be developed where the waste is first categorized and segregated. Then the waste is measured and all the information about the waste if fed to a remote server where all the data is stored. This data is then used to develop waste management plans for an entire locality.

A few shortcomings

There are a few constraints that need to be considered while designing this project:

• Size of the waste allowed: The size of the waste material that is allowed into the system is limited. This is due to the fact that the flap that opens to allow the waste into the system is of a limited size. Therefore, large sized waste is not allowed in the system.
• Speed of Operation: The system operates at a slow speed. This is due to the fact that the waste rolls down the incline quite fast; however, the motor that places the correct dustbin under the waste cannot match the waste’s speed. Therefore, the waste material must be stalled for sometime before the correct bin is placed under it.
• Segregation of paper: Since the di-electric constant for paper and certain types of plastic is almost equal, sensing paper and plastic at the same time is not possible. Therefore, only plastic materials can be segregated while paper cannot be segregated.

Potential to Achieve Clean India Goal

This prototype is just the beginning. If commercialized, this can mark the beginning of a new, autonomous waste management system. And the system need not be limited to just the above functions. Some great ideas for future development are:

The co-ordinates of the house where the dustbin is present will be sent automatically to Google Maps. Then, the shortest path between the dustbin and the pickup truck (for waste) will be calculated and the waste can then be collected.

Any kind of bio-degradable waste can be turned into compost. Therefore, designing a system that can achieve this conversion would also enhance the existing system.

Also, a design is begin proposed where automated robots will collect the waste from each house and will dump it in a dump yard. Such a system demands large scale implementation in a city or a town. Whenever a dustbin becomes full, a robot will visit the house and empty out the dustbin.