Envisioning IoT applications in a smart city to underpin an effective municipal strategy: The smartbin project

Abstract

Due to the Earth’s population rapid growth and the modern lifestyle, the urban waste creation rate constantly increases.Organic waste, which forms a significant part of municipal solid waste, has caused increasing environmental concerns. Recycling is the only way to make a sustainable environment. According to estimations from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, around 24 percent of the total waste can be composted. Instead, most of it is land filled and incinerated. By composting organic waste,we can preserve resources and produce a valuable by-product that can be used as a locally produced fertilizer. In this paper, we propose a solution: a low-cost and effective Smart Compost Bin that utilizes modern technologies, such as environmental sensors and the LoRaWAN protocol to assist with the compost process.A centralized Information System collects measurements from smart bins that can be deployed anywhere and can further assist with the waste collection process. We have performed several experiments with our smart bin prototype, evaluated its efficiency and concluded that it is a feasible solution.