Smart waste monitoring system as an initiative to develop a digital territory in Riobamba city

Abstract

Digital territories focus on community transformation through sustainable development, saving resources in local governments, bridging the digital gap, and using technology to build smart infrastructure. This article presents the design and implementation of a smart system, called the Waste Treatment System (WTS), for controlling parameters of waste decomposition in the trash bins installed in Riobamba city (Ecuador). The prototype allows monitoring in real time both the amount of waste and the level of rottenness of garbage by means of the measurement of different parameters that indicate the characteristics of the leachates generated inside. The motivation of this work was to yield an efficient solution to urban waste treatment that optimizes resources in the collection process by providing real-time information to improve collection frequency vehicles and also reduce emissions by the decomposition of organic waste. The tests allowed assessing technical aspects such as the maximum coverage of wireless communication, the transmission channel capacity for each prototype, the data-processing requirements, and other more particular parameters such as the production of leachates due to the frequency of collection and the environmental conditions, which will be useful in future work on environmental impact.