Smart cities: A case study in waste monitoring and management

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of employing sensor enabled solutions to improve on waste monitoring and collection in public trash bins. Through a user-centered design approach, an inexpensive monitoring system developed and tested in pilot study. The system consists of wireless nodes that use ultrasonic sensors to measure the empty space in the bins, a sensor gateway that is based on Long Rage Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol and cloud-based back/front end for data collection, analysis and visualization. The system was evaluated through a pilot test, where six outdoor trash bins were remotely monitored at a university campus and a number of stakeholders were observed and interviewed. The results show that the existing technologies are mature enough to be able to develop and implement inexpensive add-on sensors to exiting trash bins, and employing such a system can provide the necessary insights to optimize waste collection processes, to avoid overfilled bins, and to improve the experience of the citizens.