Smart Garbage Monitoring System Using Arduino 101

Introduction

Smart Garbage Monitoring System Using Internet of Things (IOT)

We are living in an age where tasks and systems are fusing together with the power of IOT to have a more efficient system of working and to execute jobs quickly! With all the power at our finger tips this is what we have come up with.

The Internet of Things (IoT) shall be able to incorporate transparently and seamlessly a large number of different systems, while providing data for millions of people to use and capitalize. Building a general architecture for the IoT is hence a very complex task, mainly because of the extremely large variety of devices, link layer technologies, and services that may be involved in such a system.

One of the main concerns with our environment has been solid waste management which impacts the health and environment of our society. The detection, monitoring and management of wastes is one of the primary problems of the present era. The traditional way of manually monitoring the wastes in waste bins is a cumbersome process and utilizes more human effort, time and cost which can easily be avoided with our present technologies.

This is our solution, a method in which waste management is automated. This is our IoT Garbage Monitoring system, an innovative way that will help to keep the cities clean and healthy.

Follow on to see how you could make an impact to help clean your community, home or even surroundings, taking us a step closer to a better way of living : )

Overview of the Monitoring System

The idea struck us when we observed that the garbage truck use to go around the town to collect solid waste twice a day. Although this system was thorough it was very inefficient. For example let’s say street A is a busy street and we see that the garbage fills up really fast whereas maybe street B even after two days the bin isn’t even half full. This example is something that actually happens thus it lead us to the ”Eureka” moment!

What our system does is it gives a real time indicator of the garbage level in a trashcan at any given time. Using that data we can then optimize waste collection routes and ultimately reduce fuel consumption. It allows trash collectors to plan their daily/weekly pick up schedule.

Criteria

The basic Model works like this:

To start with you will first have to enter the height of the dustbin. This will help us generate the percentage of trash in the trashcan. We then have two criterias which needs to be satisfied to show that the particular bin needs to be emptied :

• The amount of trash, in other words let’s say if your bin is half full you don’t really need to empty it. Our thresh, or maximum amount that we permit of trash, is 75% of the bin. (You could alter the thresh according to your preference.)

• If supposing a particular trashcan fills up 20% and then for a week doesn’t change, it comes into our second criteria, time. With time even the little amount will start rotting leading to a smelly surrounding. To avoid that our tolerance level is 2 days, so if a trashcan is less than 75% but it is two days old it then will also need to be emptied.

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