What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about a smart city? If you’re like most people, chances are you’re already imagining a glitzy city skyline filled with a zillion high-rise apartments, wide roads, and luxury cars. But those aren’t the only things that are common to the most advanced cities in the world.
A smart city is one that leverages innovation Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to ensure citizen welfare. Internet of things (IoT) and data analytics play a key role in shaping the present and future of the urban landscape.
One of the key distinguishing features of a smart city is its ability to improve operational efficiency using these technologies. That involves a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from automated traffic management to smart waste management solutions.
In this blog, we’ll delve deeper into the world of smart waste management and understand whether it’s worth the hype. Let’s get started.
Challenges of Traditional Waste Management Systems
Typically, waste management companies and city municipalities employ staff who travel throughout the city collecting waste from various dumpsters. The biggest drawback of such an approach is that garbage bins aren’t always filled to the brim when city collection companies reach them.
That means the city administration invests plenty of time and resources visiting and collecting trash from half-filled dumpsters every day. Also, in the absence of effective route optimization solutions, the garbage trucks often end up missing a few locations. It results in overflowing trash receptacles in some parts of the city.
Needless to say, the approach is inefficient, time-consuming, and expensive in the long run. Moreover, when the trucks have to cover the entire city daily, it results in increased fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
It highlights the need to find more efficient waste management solutions that are less resource-intensive and fuel-intensive. That’s where smart waste management steps into the picture.
Smart Waste Management: A Closer Look
Smart waste management systems are one of the most useful applications of IoT. Simply put, the technology utilizes ultrasonic sensors to determine when a dumpster has reached its maximum capacity. It eliminates the need for city collection services to manually check half-filled dumpsters every day.
The most crucial component of such a system is a smart bin, which is equipped with an ultrasonic sensor. The sensor uses ultrasonic waves to monitor the level of trash in the bin and relays the information to an IoT platform.
Also, the sensor notifies the authorities once the bin is completely filled and needs to be cleared out. You can check Coltraco’s website for more information on how ultrasonic sensors work and the benefits they offer.
These sensors help automate the process of monitoring trash levels across various dumpsters. City municipalities can leverage that data to optimize garbage collection routes and even predict seasonal waste generation and collection patterns.
Apart from ultrasonic sensors, smart garbage bins are fitted with light, motion, vibration, and GPS sensors. These help track various parameters, including location and temperature. They even help detect theft and tampering.
Moreover, smart waste management systems often include solar-powered powered trash compactors. Unlike regular garbage bins, these trash receptacles monitor the fill level and automatically trigger a compaction cycle when the bin is filled. It means they can accommodate nearly five times more trash than traditional bins.
Why Use Smart Waste Management?
The popularity of smart waste management solutions has skyrocketed in recent years. It isn’t surprising that the smart waste management market is projected to cross $7.8 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 18.6%.
But what is propelling the increased demand for smart waste management systems?
To begin with, it helps city authorities and waste management companies boost operational efficiency. They can leverage huge amounts of data on trash levels from various locations and accordingly dedicated resources. They can identify the locations that are overflowing with trash or about to get filled.
Trash collectors no longer have to visit each location to empty out half-filled bins. It saves both time and money. It also minimizes the chances of missed pickups due to human error.
The deployment of smart waste stations at Times Square, New York in 2013 helped skyrocket the trash capacity by 200%. Also, it minimized the frequency of collection per bin by nearly 50%. Considering the exploding urban population in cities, installing smart bins is a cost-effective way to deal with the growing amount of garbage.
Moreover, new-age smart waste management systems have route optimization features that help the authorities select the best route for trash collection. Apart from improving efficiency, it also helps reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Seems like a win-win for the citizens and the environment, doesn’t it?
The use of solar-powered smart bins further reduces power consumption, making the system even more environmentally friendly. These bins can be used for a wide range of other purposes, including the collection of hyperlocal weather data and providing free WiFi hotspots.
Powering the Transformation of Modern Cities
Timely and cost-effective waste management is one of the key challenges city municipalities face. The only way to make the process less resource-intensive and more environmentally friendly is to deploy smart waste management systems. These systems leverage sensor technology and data analytics to help trash collection services optimize their operations.
