Smart City Concept and Waste Management With IoT

Over the last few years, the IoT has become an extremely popular term that a lot of people explain in many different ways. The IoT helps to connect numerous smart objects/devices to the Internet and generate large amounts of data for further processing, monitoring, and analyzing so that appropriate actions can be taken.?

The Smart City concept and its importance

The ‘Smart City’ concept means using smart technologies and data in order to tackle sustainability challenges in urban areas. There is an enormous number of global environmental problems expected to be solved in the shortest time possible.?

Nowadays many cities try to scale up different processes to become ‘smarter’, engage technology and up-to-date information to address some of their key issues - reducing traffic congestion, optimizing transport and energy use, improving water and air quality.?

For instance, according to the BBC, computers are scanning the roads in London, with a 98% accuracy rate in identifying vehicles and people. And this is just the beginning - the system becomes more and more accurate every day. Long story short, the Smart City concept is about collecting real-time data from citizens, vehicles, public transport, buildings, corporations, and other citified infrastructure electronic methods to improve operations across the city.?

Implementation of this concept may allow optimizing the efficiency of city operations and building a strong urban community. In brief, this is a term that relates to the present and the future.?

Why do Smart Cities need an efficient tool to manage waste?

Many people all over the world do not give a second thought to waste or the items they get rid of; however, there are many implications of waste such as misused labor or avoidable use of energy. Proper waste management can promote the use of garbage as a valuable resource and boost recycling. For instance, used plastic bottles not only can be transformed into new bottles but can also be modified to serve as a home zoning system, fencing, clothing, carpets and these are just a few examples!?

Proper waste management is just simple steps, so-called baby steps, along the path to the big ‘Smart City’ goals that can increase community recycling rates and improve the quality of urban life. Nevertheless, this can be achieved only if each citizen is engaged enough and makes a contribution to this large-scale project aimed at recycling waste, minimizing household trash, etc.?

Such a shift may lead to changing a lifestyle and some family habits. However, it is definitely worth living in a cleaner, safer and healthier world. According to Forbes, the countries that are winning the ‘Recycling Race’ are Germany, South Korea, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, and some others.

The Countries Winning The Recycling Race

(Recycled and composted waste as a share of total municipal waste in OECD countries)

1. Germany - 65%
2. South Korea - 59%
3. Slovenia?- 58%
4. Austria?- 58%
5. Belgium - 55%
6. Switzerland?- 51%
7. Sweden?- 50%
8. Netherlands?- 50%
9. Luxembourg?- 48%
10. Iceland?- 45%
11. Denmark?- 44%

Every citizen should be inspired by countries that are exceptionally good at effective and eco-friendly waste management.?

What is a Smart Waste Management System?

Apart from every citizen’s desire and motivation to make the world a better place, a smart waste management platform is of great help, too. The high-level systems can assist customers by helping in monitoring and planning daily waste management activities. Digital transformation of waste management can be a starting point to digitize the process and have an impact on the key issues that need to be resolved.?

Influence of IoT-based waste management platforms on waste collection

By 2050, more than half of the world’s population will be living in cities. Therefore, the amount of garbage will be growing as well. The World Bank expects a 70% global increase in urban solid waste – with developing countries facing the greatest challenges. It is associated not only with great harm to the environment but also with huge waste disposal costs.?

It becomes obvious that the Internet of Things (IoT) is a driving power when we talk about:

• reducing the frequency of bin collections;
• minimizing the waste collection costs;?
• creating an easy and efficient system to control the whole process.?

IoT-based waste management platforms have no trouble with real-time monitoring of trash bins that can be displayed on the maps, remotely collecting data about the level of filling, date, and time of the latest waste collection. Using this information is much more efficient to avoid overflowing containers and stop collecting the ones that are 50% empty.?

By analyzing and constantly updating the data, the IoT-based platform can predict when it is time to empty the bins and come up with the most comfortable routes that will minimize or even completely avoid standstills that cause enormous costs and, hence, revenue losses. With the help of a waste management app, the quality and efficiency of waste collection services can be increased while the maintenance costs on emptying bins can be reduced.?

How do Smart Bins work?

Smart Bins are said to be the innovative future of waste management, and it is hard not to agree. Smart Bins are advanced containers that recognize different types of waste. A smart system is implanted inside the container and uses real-time indicators and artificial intelligence to make the collection system more efficient and less costly by differentiating and compressing the waste, setting up the collection schedule, and optimizing logistics.?

The benefits of Smart Bins are indisputable:

Environmentally friendly?

Nowadays, it is crucially important to go green and help the environment. Every citizen can make sustainable changes to decrease the negative effect that our everyday lives have on the planet. With Smart Bins, there is no need for frequent or even needless collections; thus, congestion and traffic interruption are minimized, so all of us can have cleaner and safer streets.

Keeping more waste in the bin

Smart Bins allow maximum utilization of the internal space in the container. The inserted waste items are automatically compressed, so there is no need to empty the bin so often. According to Guardforce, this feature enables the bin to hold up to eight times more waste and reduces the collection frequency by up to 80%. This is a huge boon for managing bins in remote areas like large parks, beachside areas and campsites. When the bin is full even after compressing the waste objects, an integrated sensor notifies the collecting company to alert those responsible for the waste collection.

No need for additional equipment

The IoT-based Smart Bins are very inventive. Being standardized, they do not require particular equipment, so extra efforts on new machines are not necessary. Besides, they can be emptied with existing collection equipment with no trouble.?

Higher recycling rates?

Compared to traditional recycling bins, Smart Bins take up much less space on the footpath. Further, they reduce clutter, improve street sanitation and make it easier for people to move around the city.?

Enhancing public awareness of waste management?

New technologies expand public knowledge on the importance of waste sorting. Smart Bins are a very effective educational tool that helps dwellers cultivate awareness of the process and understand the connection between consumerism, waste, and climate issues. Apart from that, most Smart Bins are invented to engage users with their attractive design, short video tutorials about waste recycling, or add-on apps that teach how to recycle properly in the form of a game.

Summing Up

Nowadays the Smart Waste system is not a luxury but a necessity. Waste needs to be smarten up in every city around the globe. More efficient waste management is one of the main challenges that the big cities have to deal with due to population growth and other significant factors. We must admit that the world relies on technology, and our lifestyle must keep up with the times.?

Waste management consists of different processes that cost a lot of money, time, and human labor, including collection, transport, processing, managing, and, of course,? waste resources monitoring. Undoubtedly, it is crucially important to optimize the waste management processes, save money and raise public awareness of waste sorting. Implementing the IoT-based technologies will lead to the development of feasible waste collection strategies, the optimization of internal processes by predicting and monitoring the amount of waste coming as well as safer and healthier life in big cities all over the world.